


i got a need for speed

by wordquaff



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Canon Divergence - Flash Season 01, M/M, Not Beta Read, Slow Burn, So I'll Be slowly editing this like usual lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 06:08:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 24,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18005321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordquaff/pseuds/wordquaff
Summary: “You’re kind of shitty at this whole villain thing,”“Well that depends on you perspective I guess,” Ray sounded too at ease with that, “If you ask me, I’m not so much of a villain as a roguish hero who doesn’t play by the rules,”“Who also commits crimes,”“I never said it was perfect metaphor.”—Or in which Ray Palmer is a little more than the villain or the week, and Leonard Snart is a little less than the perfect hero.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Reverse AU! Inspired by the amazing fic: [“Waiting for the hope” ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8004334) by ColdAtomHeadcanons  
> This was a one shot that completely got away from me; it is creeping a little stream of conscious, and kind of jumps around but is still chronological. Lemme know if I should label what episodes it corresponds with?  
> Played it a little fast and loose with the timeline, trying to make it a little longer since the first seven episode are supposed to have taken place with in 11 days and that gives me whiplash.  
> POST FLASH IS BORN  
> (*** = same episode; *** *** ***= longer time jump)

   There was a deafening blast behind him, but Leonard could hear past the screaming of the hostage in front of him, “Sir, sir, please, we have it under control—”

   “Like _hell! Who_ are you!” he cried, shrill voice painting a hilarious picture his his dust covered million dollar suit “What is going _on_?”

   “I’m help,” he tried to go on, but the noise of a loudspeaker screeched through the building, the hostage’s eyes going wide and panicked.

   “I swear I didn’t mean to mess this place up as much as we did,” a vocoder esque voice riverbed through, like it was being pumped through an empty football stadium and not the middle of chaos, “I always did like this place!”

   “ _What is that?”_ the man asked, clutching onto the walls behind him like that was going to help. Leonard didn’t respond, pretending it was because he had to look over his shoulder to count the number of people he still had to help and _not_ because he didn’t actually know the answer to that question.

   “Sir, you really need to get out of here before you get hurt.”

   “Not before I know what’s going—”

   Another blast sounded and Leonard just pushed him out the door midstream.

 

***

 

   In hindsight, Leonard should stop agreeing to hostage duty.

   When they had intercepted the call of a hold up at a fundraiser for the Centralists (a group of the cities oldest patrons), they all assumed it was going to be cut and dry, same business as usual. Squad cars already lined the street when the got there; Barry supporting the back of Leonard’s head as the zipped into the building, Cisco reporting in their ears that police had been there for the better part of forty-five minutes trying to make contact with the person holding them hostage.

   Barry had made the decision to deal with the agitator while Leonard slipped in and got the people out, no muss, no fuss.

   That was thirty minutes ago. And the theater was mostly on fire now.

 

***

       

   “Holy smokes, you’re fast!” the voice exclaimed again.

   It didn’t sound _organic_ — it sounded like it was coming out of a loudspeaker or something similarly modulating. Another blast erupted from the front atrium and Leonard heard the crackling of Barry’s lightning— some debris flew into the front entryway and Barry swore into the comms.

   He covered the back of the last civilian, who scuttled out even more maniacally than before. Detective West met him at the door, taking the hostage into his arms giving the usual _I’m a cop, you’re safe_ spiel.

   West met his eye, “Anyway I’ll get you out of there?”

   “Depends on how much of the building you want left standing after this,”

   His draw was cold, impersonal but he could tell West felt the genuine annoyance laying underneath. He sighed, but nodded, so Leonard cocked his gun and turned back in.

   Part of his brain egged at him to cut the kid some slack; after all, Barry was still new at this whole _hero thing_ . (Not that wielding a freeze ray and running into the face of danger was particularly _old hat_ to Leonard, but at least he wasn’t a twenty-something twink with an unquenchable hero complex, you get the picture) Then, of course, the other part of his brain dutifully noted that his seeming need to throw himself into danger blindly was becoming quite an annoying habit, so Barry deserved all the ribbing Leonard could dish.

   “I’m about to head in there, boys,” Leonard drawled, readying his gun, “Do you have visuals?”

   “ _Plus your goggle cam, I am pulling up three security sweeps right now— which, by the way, is way too easy to do, they need to update their systems, it’s sort of c—”_

   “A simple yes would suffice, Ramon.”

   “ _You are literally the biggest buzzkill,_ fine— _yes.”_

   The eye roll was second nature when talking to Cisco, but Leonard pushed past his annoyance to roll, back against the wall, into the atrium, gun at the ready.

   The scene was as disastrous as he’d thought it’d be; the Holloway Marston theater was one of the oldest in the city, ornate and pretentious in its art deco design, but now it was nearly unrecognizable; all the windows were blown out, stained glass laying around the floors and balconies. Dry wall and wall debris flew around in a complete chaos and Leonard couldn’t help but think of the insurance this place must have.

   Yellow lightning zoomed in front of him, several mini blasts of lasers hitting the ground as Barry’s feet sped by. Leonard tracked the source of the blasts— they were coming from high up, somewhere with a good vantage point but enough coverage that it wasn’t obvious— before he could finish his assessment, he saw a bright flash of another laser heading his way and felt a hand grab a hold the back of his parka and he was suddenly on the other side of the room.

   “Aw, you got a friend!” the same voice echoed off the rubble, “That is so fun,”

    Barry paused with Leonard for a second, chest heaving as Leonard narrowed his eyes at the balcony— certainly where the guy has to be— “Has it been like this the whole goddamn time?”

   “More or less,” Barry gulped, ‘This is a weird one, dude,”

   “Because we’re fighting Mr. Rogers with a laser gun?”

   “No because that’s a straight up— oh, _shit—-”_ Barry grabbed him again, rushing them to the other side of the theater, the spot they were just standing at exploding seconds after they stop. Leonard swayed from the impact, his stomach disagreeing with the amount of whiplash this mission was already— by the time he recovered, Barry was already speeding away, calling into the comms, “ _Just look up there!”_

   He called some protests after the speedster, but he was too busy trying to run up the side of the wall, so he turned to the comms instead, “Ramon, if you have eyes on this thing, now would be a good time to give me a location,”

   “ _I’m working on it, Snart!”_ Cisco yelled back, “ _Ah! Got you, you son of a bitch— look up by the far balcony for a… wait, is that what I—_ Wells! _Is that what I think it is?!”_

   The railing it snapped off came hurling at Leonard lazily, as if it was barely aiming for him, but it was sizable enough that he just had time to freeze it before it was too late. He felt ice shards tickle his jaw as it shattered.

   “Dang, that’s cool! Oh— I didn’t even _mean_ to do a pun!”

   Another railing was thrown at Barry, who zipped around to dodge the impact. He felt his brow furrow— the attack didn’t make sense, it was obvious that Barry could dodge that no issue, why would it throw something Barry could avoid? His thoughts were answered as soon as Barry reappeared, readying himself with confidence, just to be blown back a few feet by a god damn _laser_.

   Okay, so they’re dealing with something with a little bit of sense in it. That was not comforting.

   “Flash, are you alright?” Leonard yelled into the comms, satisfied enough with a groan to prove Barry wasn’t dead.

   “ _Guys! Shut up! Do you_ see _that!?”_

  “ _A lot of moving parts here, Cis- what are you asking?!”_

   He went to do a evaluation of the room, but quickly changed course when another laser was thrown his way, he leapt, finding safety behind one of the ceiling high, ornate marble columns. He peaked around, eyes jumping quickly trying to find something out of place in the chaos by the balcony as Cisco directed, utterly confused before his sight landed clear on the center of the room about twenty feet up—

   Wait. Was that a…?

   “ _Holy shit, that’s a robot!”_ Cisco’s voice squealed, annoyingly, “ _It’s about damn time we snagged a robot!”_    

   “ _I’m not so sure, Cisco. Its’ movements seem way too sporadic to be programming— I believe this is something new all together,”_ Wells replied, but Leonard didn’t have time to considered that, since the column he was hiding behind exploded.

   The fire began to heat up the back of his jacket, so he jumped away from the blast, front rolling behind the next closest one. He whipped around the drywall for a second, eyes locking on the— _whatever the hell it was_ — and fired off a ball of ice that way, ducking for cover before he followed through, but there was _crash_ that told him it hit.

   “Boys, I’m not sure I care about the semantics,” he growled. A _woosh_ sounded as Barry appeared next to him, chest heaving with exercise.

   “Me neither,” he heaved, finger going to the comms, “Any ideas on how to that that _thing_ down?”

   “ _Whatever it is, its reliant on tech so anything you can do to short circuit it.”_ the residual noise of Cisco attacking his keyboard cut through his ears, _“If Snart can get a good shot in there and stay on it for more than fifteen seconds, you should be able to freeze his system long enough to take him down,”_

   “Roger that. Think you can get me close enough, Flash?”

   Barry smirked at the challenge, hand going to the back of Leonard’s neck and before he knew it, he was on the balcony behind the floating suit. A flash of lightning and Barry was across the room waving his arms frantically.

   “Hey, Mega Man!” he called, “Over here!’”

   If Leonard didn’t know better, he could have _sworn_ he heard an almost human like laugh coming out of the machine, distorted unnaturally, but he didn’t focus too hard on that. The machine’s arms lit up, gearing up another blast. Now that he was closer, Leonard took the change to evaluate the tech: it looked like separate pieces all locked together with hinges to a main chest piece, everything a dark blue and cranberry. It was bulkiest in the center of the chest— probably where the operating system were, though it could be split among the square on the belt,Leonard couldn’t be sure at this distance. The underneath was distinctly human shaped (clear arms and legs, rockets coming out of the feet) but _huge_ (taller than Leonard by several inches and about two Ciscos wide) and the whole head equivalent was covered in a mask.

   The lasers charged again, before exploding out towards Barry who ran as soon as the light left its palms.

    “Come on, buddy!” the voice called, “I don’t have anything against you, why don’t you just walk away?

   Barry appeared at Leonard’s ten o'clock, “Can’t do that, man!”

   “Bleeding heart?”

   “Right thing to do!’

   “You know, I don’t fully understand the difference between the two...”

   The machine caught up, spinning with his back fully to Leonard— if his guess was right, he needed a clear shot of the chest to really give it pause. “Barry, I need him facing me,” he muttered into the comms.

   He could tell Barry heard him, since he perked up in that way he always did before he did something stupid, “You want me gone, C3P0!? Get rid of me yourself!!”

   “Why do I feel like I’m getting egged on?”

   The machine didn’t get an answer to that, as Barry speed off, Leonard feeling the wind blow his hood up over his head, bringing the gun up at the ready. Machine didn’t take its own advice apparently, as it did follow the movement, spinning unevenly in the air,Leonard counting down until they were fully face to face— or face to weird mask thing.

   He could see the moment the machine realized something wasn’t right, but Leonard was faster, firing off a blast before its hand could even move. The impact threw it off kilter for a moment, before he could see the frost spread across the chest plate, sparks flying from the exposed locks and sick _crack_ spreading fervently.

   Leonard stepped forward to edge of the balcony and cranked up the power, the stream getting denser. That had an obvious effect on the machine, an odd noise coming out of it as it got more unsteady in its floating position, before it seemed to take advantage of the momentum of the stream and spin with it instead of trying to fight it. _Smart_ ,Leonard thought for a second before a stray icicle broke off and spun towards the head. It knocked at the chin, its force propping up whatever mechanics in the hinge at the temples, the front part flipping up and—

   Leonard caught half a glance of a man’s face before the whole body shrunk unevenly and before it completely disappeared.

   It was nearly anticlimactic, as all the noise in the room instantly puttered out and died,Leonard’s stream breaking off with a _crack_. The dust settled around them as he and Barry stood, slack jawed and staring at the space the machine used to be, silence stretching between them in an awed confusion.

   “What… the _fuck?_ ”

   And Barry took the words right out of his mouth.

   

***

 

   “Did you _see_ that!” Barry exclaimed as soon as they sped into the cortex, letting Leonard go just a moment too soon and his knees buckled with the force. Luckily, Caitlin was there to catch him from falling all the way over so he recovered well enough to glare up at Barry, who’s attention was already gone.

   Instead, he was already bouncing around Cisco, whose face was just as animated, “ _Dude, dude, dude!!_ That was so fucking cool! It was a man in a suit, and when the machine shrunk— as did the organic material—!”

   “It must have been a part of the suit mechanics— there’s some sort of system—”

   “Maybe a whole compacting system that can someway adjust his size underneath the suit—”

   “I’ve never seen _anything_ like that—”

   “Check your Cheerios, because we got a Rick Moranis here!”

   “If you two are _done,_ ” Leonard called over their overlapping nonsense, pulling his goggles off, “I knocked his mask off before he pulled the Houdini trick. Were we able to get a clear shot of his face?”

   Wells answered from behind the desk, clicking away and sending the view to the bigger screen. It was a blurry screenshot, just a corner of a pale face and dark hair visible.

   “Unfortunately, it seems he had considered that possibility and angled himself away from any cameras,” Wells sighed, taking his glasses off, probably solely for the drama,

   Barry jumped in, leaning casually against the far wall,“But we can still narrow our list of suspects. This guy is obviously pretty smart, or otherwise has access to high level tech. We’re probably looking for someone in the engineering or computer sciences field. Cisco—”

   He looked up, ready for instruction.

   “Is there anyway you could try to determine what exactly the suit out of?”

   Cisco excited went back behind the computer, with the grace of a child trying out for his local soccer team, “I’ll do some analysis on the footage— and if you can slip me some samples from the crime scene later, I’d bet my bottom dollar I’ll figure out what Super Shrinker is working with here,”

   “Super Shrinker? Is that what we’re going with?” Caitlin asked, amused.

   “Well, I was between that and Antman, since you know he can get as small of an ant but I dunno. The branding not strong enough for that one, so Super Shrinker it is,”

   Leonard rolled his eyes, “Since you have that very important issue dealt with, put up an alert to see if those funds show up anywhere else. ”

   “Yes, that could help us determine what his intentions are. Very good idea, Mr. Snart,” Wells said, sending him a supportive smile, which only made Leonard roll his eyes again and turn away as he shrugged off his parka.

   Wells was the kind of guy you wanted to clean with a wire brush. From the first job interview all those years ago, Leonard had known he was a complete sleazeball— and you could authenticate that since Leonard was _fluent_ in sleazeball. There was a weird film over all his words, nothing landing genuinely, soLeonard _knew_ he was hiding something which he had no patience for.

   His thoughts dissipated as Caitlin appeared behind him, hands running down his arm as he hissed at the contact. He hadn’t noticed before, but getting thrown around in the blasts must have left him with some nasty looking bruises.

   “What did I say about watching yourself in the field? I thought you agreed to wear padding!?”

   “Oh, I thought that was a your tight five, I didn’t realize you were serious.”

   When she wanted them to be, Snow’s glares could be colder than his ice gun, which only served to make him respect her more not _intimidate_ him. He smiled, ignorning the sting of her smacking his arm before she turned on her heel and stalked into the med wing.

   “All I need is an aspirin and a glass of scotch, neat!”

   “Yeah I don’t think you’re gonna win that one,” Barry winced as he struggled out of the hood, “This guy; he seems like an another non-meta though. It could help if you asked around with your, uh, _sources_ , Leonard. See if maybe she— _they’ve_ heard of anything?”

   Despite Barry’s flustered vagueness, Leonard caught his drift, “We must be desperate if you’re even acknowledging that. Here I was thinking that topic was dead to us— I had created a whole little backstory for myself. Papa was a coal miner,”

   The team all glared at him with varying levels of annoyance. Tough crowd.

   “Just trying to lighten the mood. I’ll check with my _sources_ tomorrow,”

   “See, that’s a normal person response. Just go with that one next time,” like clockwork, Barry’s ringtone sounded and he speed to pull it out of his civilian clothing pockets, “This is work— I’m heading to the crime scene now.”

   “Need I remind you, Mr. Allen, to keep an air of ignorance with your colleagues? Careful not to allude to anything you wouldn’t know from evidence,”

   “Of course, obviously, Dr. Wells. I’m always the definition of _subtle_ ,” he didn’t break in his spiel for Leonard’s snort, “I’ll be back by the end of the night with those samples for you, Cisco,”

   Before Cisco could respond, their hair all blew back from Barry’s retreating _swoosh_ , paper flying everywhere— Caitlin caught a few loose projectiles and really, her reflexes were vastly improving, Leonard was _very_ impressed. She ignored his sardonic clapping, grabbing his shoulder and forcefully pulling him into the med bay.

   He was less impressed.    

 

*** *** ***

   

   Leonard had always been an early riser.

  It was remnant of living under his father, he supposed. For a man who avoided the draft, Lewis Snart kept a schedule like a military general, which included those lovely five a.m. wake up calls. He never did shake the habit when he went to school, but as he got older he cared less and less. (Though surrounding himself with only twenty-somethings recently, he was starting to feel the wear of late nights in the back of his head.)

  Lisa wasn’t-- she had shaken free of that when their father went away so Leonard knew he was going to have to occupy himself for the few hours after his five a.m. now natural wake up before heading over to her place.

  So he decided to pick up her groceries.

  By nature of her chosen profession, consistent funds weren’t always something that were guaranteed, which meant stuff like food and basica human care fell by the wayside more often than not. Besides, she ate like a twelve year old with a credit card, so he could hardly trust her to keep herself healthy. 

  He stopped by a smaller, family place on his way over, picking up some fruits and vegetables, making sure to shovel in ingredients for pancakes (never the box stuff, Lisa could  _ tell _ ) but found himself wondering around after he was done because the store was a  _ waste land _ . The only person he saw was a stock boy, shakily stacking the same three milk cartons in a lukewarm freezer over and over again, who looked near tears when the made eye contact.

   “You wanna check out?” at Leonard’s nod, the stock boy sniffled, “I’ll be up in a second,”

   He scuttled into the back room, creaking the milk cart along with him as if it weighed one hundred pounds. Leonard winced for the poor kid; he remembered his horrible shifts during college, basically sleep walking his way through three jobs. He made his way to the checkout area, trying to remember if tipping grocery store attendants was a thing.

   There was another person in the line, so far the only other person in the whole store. The isolation wasn’t surprising; it _was_ still early and grocery shopping wasn’t exactly everyone’s favorite morning activity. He was intensely focused on the box he was reading. Leonard felt his eyes drawn to him, taking advantage of the man’s distraction to run his eyes up and down his form slowly. The stranger certainly was quite a sight; freakishly tall, broad, with a jaw that could cut glass and floppy brown hair, looking barely brushed.Leonard checked his watch. Yeah, definitely enough time to lay a little pipe.

   He moved closer; the cute guy was squinting at the ingredients like they owed him so sort of money, plump mouth moving as he muttered under his breath. The whole dazed and confused thing only made him _more_ adorable.

   “Are you having trouble remembering how to read?” Leonard chewed every word out, voice dropping shamelessly.

   His words startled the man for a second as he turned towards Leonard. He paused when he took him in, blush appearing wonderfully on those _glorious_ cheekbones and mouth opening just a little as his brown eyes took Leonard in toe to tip. _Interesting_ , he thought smugly.

   The stranger recovered quickly enough, laughing just a little, “No, I’m just trying to…” he shook the box like that was supposed to mean something to Leonard.

   He lifted his arms just a little, trying to signal to go on.

   “Do you know if spelt is gluten free?”

  He stared at him blankly, “... No. It’s wheat.”

  “Oh. Is it literally just wheat and I’m a huge idiot, or is it maybe more complicated?”

  “It has one ingredient and it’s _wheat_.”

  “Wow, that might just be the nicest way someone’s ever called me stupid,” he laughed again and Leonard could definitely get used to that sound.

   “Well, I’m very charming,”

   The stranger looked at him again, eyes a little darker than before, “Yeah. The whole tall, dark, and handsome thing helps too,”

   That was… unexpected but _welcome_ . Even curiouser, the sweetness in the man’s voice brought a shy smile to the corner of Leonard mouth. It was so _genuine_ that it sort of made Leonard’s chest ache, in the best kind of way. The man leaned forward a little bit, intentions very _clear_ and adorably kind.

   “You have an incredible smile,”

   Despite himself, he laughed a little at that, just a quiet sort of shy thing which only served to make the man’s smile grow wider. Before Leonard could reply, the stock boy lumbered his way through the aisle towards to check out. Minutely, the two of them moved apart, the stranger back stepping just a tad.

   As the kid tucked himself next to the cash register, the stranger gestured with the box of spelt, “I should… go put this back,”

   “That you should,” he nodded, smile still intact.

   The man smiled back, stepping away, with a look over his ridiculously wide shoulder, “Have a good one,”

   “You too,” he drawled, eyes shamelessly fixed on his retreating ass.

   Not a bad way to start the day.

   

***

 

   Lisa’s door creaked open with the key under the matt— he had noticed that creak last time he was there, had meant to WD-40 it but been pulled out on a Flash call instead. Her apartment was a mess as always, but it was a bit more forgiving when bathed in golden light. Still an absolute _wonder_ as to how they were related when Leonard had every surface in his home _spotless_ , like an _adult_.

   He didn’t call out. Her instincts would wake her up soon enough, and he knew she enjoyed the surprise over the wake up call, so he maneuvered his way around the clutter towards the kitchen and placed his bags on the counter. He checked her fridge first— he was right, all that was in there were three hot pickles and a bottle of vodka— so he began to unload his haul, not bothering with the noise.

   Soon enough, the furthest bedroom door hit the wall as it opened with a loud _crack_.

   “To whoever the _hell_ is in my apartment, I want you to know I’m usually more clever but you decided to have a _death wish_ at nine a.m.—” as Lisa came around the crest of the wall, she cut herself off with a gasp, “Lenny!”    

   “Sis, we really gotta work on your response to strange men in your apartment,”

   “Oh, shut up,” she yawned, yanking him him into a tight hug, “ _You’re_ the one who broke it, I’ll call the police I swear,”

   He cherished it for a second— he was thankful that Lisa was more touchy than he, it gave him an excuse to really let himself miss his sister. She smelled clean, so she had probably shower the night before, and he couldn’t feel her spine through her clothes— it seemed the empty fridge wasn’t due to lack of eating, but just her own laziness.

   She pulled back, rubbing at her eyes making her shirt slip around her shoulders sloppily— it was obviously too big. A dark grey henley, stretched out at the shoulders and the upper arm, that was utterly threadbare.

   “Where’s Mick, the big old lug?” he asked, finishing the work by scooting the egg carton onto the top shelf.

   She pouted, “How the hell did you know he was here?”

   “I don’t know if you noticed, but you’re barely covered with that tent of a shirt. I know it doesn’t belong to some random hook up, because you would never give them something to come back for it. Mick and I are the only people with a key. Simple deduction— though, I will admit I didn’t realize we’re back in talks with him?”

   “Well, you don’t know everything about me, brother,” she drawled, knocking some old mail off the counter to hop up for a seat, “And it’s all water under the bridge now. We had a real heart to heart, made a peace offering, very gay. You would have been proud.”

   As if on queue, a lumbering hulk of man grunted out of guest room, bleary eyes already glaring as if it was the end of a long ass day. The glaring stare settled on the siblings in the kitchen, completely devoid of any determinable emotion.

   “Morning, Mick,” he drawled

   “What the fuck are you here for?” he replied instead, voice as gruff and unimpressed as Leonard remembered.

   “Lovely, bright eyed, and bushy tailed as ever,” he grabbed a mug for the broad man, plugging the coffee machine in, “And one could say the same to you,”

   Mick snatched the mug from his hands, grumbling, “That’s none of your business.”

   “Why _are_ you here though, L? Are pancakes the answer? Please say pancakes are the answer,”

   He stuck Lisa with a look, no real heat behind it as he shook his head, throwing the orange from palm to palm. Her face fell slightly— he hated doing that to her. They barely saw each other the longer the _Flash Issue_ went on, and he despised when it came down to business. He felt dirty, in the worst, straight edge kind of way, and it certainly didn’t help that Mick _never_ let him forget it.

   And true to form, he did not break pattern, “You gon’ rat us out, Goodie?”

   “Don’t flatter yourself, Mick, they don’t neither know, nor care about you,” Mick pouted, almost like he was disappointed, but Leonard ignored him, rolling his head lazily. He leaned himself against the counter as he took a knife to the peel. He didn’t worry about making them wait— they had the same blood as him, Mick and Lisa, so they _appreciated_ his flare for the dramatic, unlike _some people,_ “I need information on a new so and so in town,”

   “Which one? I don’t know if you’ve _noticed_ but it’s been an absolute _gross_ of new baddies in our little city, bro. Sorta hard to keep up with the flavor of the week,”

   “Tall guy, in a Tron suit. Robbed a couple of banquets the other week,” he popped a slice in his mouth, “Personality of a... bank manager,”

   There was a beat after his words, in which Lisa and Mick’s eyes tennised back and forth in silent communication. Leonard felt his eyebrow raise at the exchange. _Curious._

   “Does he get real small?” Mick asked. St Leonard's nod, he grunted on, “Don’t know him.”

   In response, Leonard just raised another eyebrow and waited. He knew them— they could only hold info from him for so long, just as a byproduct of his raising them and all. As usual, Lisa broke first.

   “Well. We know _of_ him.”

   “Watch me shiver with anticipation,”

   She shrugged, her shirt slipping even further down her shoulder as she did so. Leonard rolled his eyes, “As far I’ve heard, he’s new in town from Starling City after all that magic shit went down. Not a meta or anything; built his suit himself even,”

   “He showed up at a job we pulled, snatching cars by the shore.” Mike offered, “Thought he was _alright,_ since wrecked _shit_ with the light show, but then he tried to talk us into giving the money up!”

   At Leonard’s confused look, Lisa jumped in, “He wanted us to donate it charity."

   "Did he say which one?"

   "Some trauma support group or something, I can't remember. Anyway, I told him we _are_ charity. After, I tried to ask around, but he doesn’t exactly hang in the usual haunts, so nobody knows nothing.”

   “ _I_ know he’s like a librarian. And not even a sexy one.”

   Both the Snarts ignored him as Leonard plowed on, “Is that all she wrote, sis?”

   “I don’t know what to tell ya, L. The guy likes an air of mystery; hell, only Baez had ever even seen without the mask.”

   “Hm.”

   “She says he’s _hot_ ,”

   His eyes were beginning to burn with how much he was rolling them, “Very helpful, thank you Lisa.”

   “Well, we all value information differently,” she smirked, looking a little too much like him for comfort, “Speaking of which, what do we get out of helping you out?”    

   “My undying love and affection?”

   “Ew. I don’t want that. What about the number of that _cute_ doctor friend of yours?” she pumped her eyebrows deviously.

   “Never going to happen, Lisa, stop trying,”

   She pouted again, going off on a rant about how he _never encouraged her_ , and that thought crept into the corner of his mind. That thought that settled into his mind every time they saw each other. The thing they’d never say aloud but they all knew.

  She was smarter than him. Neither of them would ever admit it, but she was. They had crossed that bridge, had that fight years ago over and over about how she could be so much more, but she insisted that she didn’t _want_ better, that she was happy with her choices. It was easier now to just ignore the unspoken words between them and spend as much time as they can.

  Instead, he threw an orange slice at her and relished in the laugh it earned him. With his hands free now, he shot a text off to Cisco, letting him know he was going to be late. After all, he had pancakes to make.

 

*** *** ***

 

   “Where’s Barry? He’s late,” Wells was rolling up the ramp into the cortex alcove.

   The rest of them laid around, in crescendoing levels on interest. Cisco had given up attentiveness a while ago, now chewing the daylights out of his pen cap; Leonard lounged, legs sprawled lazily on the desk next to him, fingers playing with the cold gun. Caitlin on the other hand wasn’t one to just sit idle, moving around the lab with her usual hyper focused fervor. It was to be expected, since they were supposed to be helping Barry with his powers, running a few new tests they hadn’t prepared themselves to entertain themselves otherwise.

   “Late is kind of his signature move,”

   Cisco pumped his brows at them, smirking, “Hey, you guys want to see _my_ signature move?”

   Leonard shook his head vehemently but Barry zoomed in, dressed in civvies blissfully saving them from whatever display Cisco was about to put on. He leaned himself against the doorway, casually.

   “Hey guys, sorry I got held up,” his eyes twinkled in a way that conveyed a punchline. Leonard exchanged a dead stare with Wells, “You had to be there,”

   It was silent between the five of them for a moment before Wells cleared his throat municipally, “I’m going to need a moment alone with Barry,”

   As if they were children being scolded, Caitlin and Cisco both tucked their heads down and made their way out the alcove, Leonard pulling himself out very carefully, eyes judgmental and twinkling. Cisco leaned in to the confused looking Barry and cooed, “ _Ooh, you’re in trouble,”_

   Leonard snorted at that, pushing Cisco’s head away playfully. He knows he hates it when Leonard acted like a softball coach, and childish taunts turned into whiny protests which only made Leonard laugh harder. Caitlin chastised them, rolling her eyes before she tucked herself back into the med bay.

   “Oh, I got an alert about that money Super Shrinker stole last night,” Cisco calmed from his annoyance, spinning his tablet around, “Turned up to a domestic abuse survivor shelter last night— not a penny out of place. Donation was anonymous, but it came from a burner account that was made the day the heist went down,”

   “I’m assuming the account was untraceable?”

   “Total ghost. If this is is a solo operation, this guys is some freaky, Felicity Smoak level genius,”

   “You could do to sound _less_ impressed, Ramon.”

   “I am just a man, Snart, I cannot control my emotions.” he said very seriously. Barry came out behind him, hurrying out the alcove with a grave expression on his face. Cisco turned to say something, but Barry cut him off.

   “I can’t stay— I’m so sorry, there was a homicide!”

   Caitlin’s head popped out of the bay, looking panicked, “Wait, Barry, but we have tests—”

   “I’m so sorry, Caitlin, I promise I’ll be back later!” before she had a chance to respond, he speed out of the cortex, papers flying around wildly around them as she stood, mouth agape.She turned to them, obviously annoyed.

   In fairness to Barry, he did come back later. Granted, he brought with him an electrified corpse he wanted them to identify, but he did come back.  

 

*** *** ***

 

  It was a rare day that Leonard got a quiet moment in the lab for himself.

  Even though there were only four of them hanging around at most times, between the constant revolving door of Barry’s emotional problems and costumed weirdos trying to slit Wells’ throat in the middle of the night there was nary any downtime. You could damn near set your watch to the empty space between mishaps, but even the thickest dust had to settle eventually. It’s difficult for things to go at breakneck speed _all the time,_ and lulls in the rhythm were bound to happen.

  Which is how he found himself, having already been alone and unbothered for a _full half hour_ , prospects on the horizon for more _._ Cisco was too busy to annoy him, holed up in the main cortex, tinkering with some new gadget he was drawing up; Wells and Caitlin were out to Mercury Labs, looking into some problem Leonard hadn’t been paying attention to, while Barry was stuck at his day job, having yelled some request for a favor that Leonard didn’t quite catch on his way out, so it must have not been that important.

  Leonard was taking _advantage_ of this beat in the rush, feet up against the “still technically condemned” old engineers’ lounge, nose stuffed deep in the covers of _The Halloween Tree_ letting himself just engulf himself in Bradbury’s words.

  And there he stayed, for nearly an hour until he felt a _buzz_ in his pocket. Knowing it was probably Lisa sending a meme, he whipped it out on muscle memory, eyes barely leaving the page to check. But what he found _wasn’t_ Lisa, or hell, even _Mick_ . Instead, a wild card: _Cisco Ramon (don’t answer)_ illuminated the screen with a simple message.

   _hey, I need your help in the cortex._

  He frowned.

 

***

 

  “Freeze, asshole,”

   His cold words shocked two reactions— Cisco looked up, face the most excited to see Leonard it had _ever_ been; while the tall stranger with the gun next to him jumped a little and exclaimed _holy smokes!_

  “Oh, thank god you’re so paranoid,” Cisco’s voice deflated in relief.

  “Why’d you bring a _gun_ ? I saw what he texted you, how did _that_ make you suspicious?”

  “When Ramon wants to get in contact with me, he scatters bones in the street like I _asked_ him to,” he growled, lowering the gun just enough to glare at him, “We don’t _text.”_

   Leonard stayed where he stood, at the mouth of the cortex, surveying the scene. He was right to be suspicious and was _glad_ he had grabbed the cold gun on the way over; while the two stood further apart than he would assumed for a hostage situation the gun in the man’s hand was an obvious threat. The man was tall, handsome— _familiar_ . His brain started to piece things together: the _holy smokes_ , the voice… something clicked on and felt his mind stall for half a second.

  The man looked lost for words for a second, eyes scanning over Leonard’s face eyes going wide after a moment, “Hey, wait a second! _You’re_ that cute guy, from the grocery store! Oh my god, I’m so glad to run into you again, I was kicking myself for not getting your number! Man, talk about serendipity,”

  Leonard felt his entire face skewer into complete disbelief because, yeah he reached the same conclusion but for a much _different_ reason. He stared completely lost at Cisco, who looked about the level of understanding. He gestured wildly, “Okay, _what the fuck is going on_!?”

  “Took the words right out of my mouth, Ramon,” he moved closer, barrel still pointing in the dead center of the man’s chest, “What the fuck _is_ going on here? And who the hell _are_ you?”

  "I'm the Atom,"

  Leonard stared at him blankly.

  The man's face pursed at the prolonged beat of silence, not in anger or frustration, but it seemed genuine confusion, "The Atom? The vagabond? I shrink and fly and fire lasers? Anything? I robbed the Centralists Banquet? I threw a railing at you?"

  "Oh," it finally clicked, "Super Shrinker,"

  The lab re-erupted in sound at that, as the man cried out in despair and Cisco threw his hands up in victory, loudly proclaiming, " _Thank you!_ I told you it was a catchier name!"

  "It's really _not_ , I sound like a Nerf gun from 1992! Atom's way cooler!"

  "They're both terrible," Leonard snapped.

  The man sighed, nodding his head resignedly, "Yeah, neither are very conducive to normal conversation, anyway. I’d rather you call me Ray."

  "Why?" Cisco asked

  "Well, ‘cause that's my name," he said, beaming.

  Okay, the tone in the air was far too casual— Leonard brought his gun up a little higher to try and remind _Ray,_ he was still in danger here, "What the hell do you want?"

  “You two! Oh, that sounded threatening. I meant your guys’ eyes, rather. No, still sounds wrong... I want your opinion!” he grimaced, “Moses, why didn’t I just say that?”

  “Wow, you _are_ like an evil Felicity,” Cisco said, which brought a pout to Ray’s full lower lip.

  “On what do you want our opinion? Fun prison activities?”

  Ray laughed, the sound bouncing beautifully around the lab, before his hand went to his pocket. Leonard instantly brought the gun right back up again. He put his hands up, “Hey! I’m just getting something, I swear! I don’t wanna hurt you guys!” He pulled out what looked like a army man, before pressing something on it.

  Cisco let out a cry of _cool!_ as the army man grew into the full Atom suit, standing on its own in the middle of the lab, “The suit. It’s been…. well, frankly, it’s been shooting lasers everywhere like a malicious disco ball. Now, I’d rather not kill any bystanders, but I have no idea what’s wrong with it. I’m a big enough man to say when I need help, and by _god_ I need help!”

  “Why come here?

  “Please, I see all that tech you build for the Flash! Y'all got _skills!_ If anyone’s able to help me out, it’s you guys,”

  “And what on God’s green Earth makes you think we would help you?”

  “You mean besides the moral obligation to protect collateral?” at the non reaction on Cisco and Leonard's faces, Ray continued, “Well, I am holding you hostage.”

  “Snooze fest,” Cisco yawned, “Been there, done that— that potato ain’t even hot no more,”

  “If we showed our deck every time someone held us hostage, we’d have no cards left,”

  “Hell, if we folded every time someone we’re _related_ to held us hostage, we’d be gone!”

  Leonard snorted, which made Cisco’s own giggles raise up from his chest.

  “Hm. You’re really not scared at all, huh? That is tricky,” Ray rubbed his chin, face a little skewered, “Should we ask Barry what he thinks?”

  The laughter died immediately.

  “What did you just say.” Len deadpanned, coldly.

  “Barry? Barry Allen? Or, does he just go by the Flash, because that’s very _Madonna_ of him,”

  Cisco spoke now, voice wavering just a little, “How the _hell_ did you know that?”

  “Oh, come on guys. I have an IQ of one-hundred-and-fifty-eight, it wasn’t that hard.” he shrugged, “Just like it wouldn’t be hard to accumulate all my data together and send it to your friend Iris— I bet she’d love that scoop for her blog— which by the way, is beautifully put together, she is _very_ talented. Of course the quality of her work might suffer a bit since she’d probably be distracted. I mean I can’t imagine what kind of loop finding out your best friend is the Flash would throw you for,”

  That was enough of that, Leonard adjusted his grip on the gun, striding forward to press the barrel flush against Ray’s chest, “What’s keeping me from freezing you solid where you _stand_ ,”

  “Oh, it’s sweet that you don’t think I have a fail safe set up that’d send the file in case I don’t make it outta here. Besides, this is so much cleaner— just help me out and I’ll be out of your guys’ hair, no muss no fuss.”

  The blood rushing in his ears was loud, pounding so. He hated how unphased Ray looked, like he was certain he was getting what he wanted but didn’t even have the decency to be cocky about it, the son of a bitch. Leonard pressed the barrel harder against his chest and glance at Cisco over his shoulder.

  His face was skewered, panicked, but the look in his eyes was certain. Very decidedly, very surely, he nodded. Leonard stepped back and lowered his gun, glaring at Ray.

  He didn’t like getting backed into corners, but he wasn’t going to get Barry killed over it.

  “Do you have the original schematics?” Cisco asked, voice impressively steady. Ray smiled, honest and pure, plugging a flash drive into the main desktop monitor.

  As soon as they light up,  everything else in Leonard’s brain auto erased itself— from the first line he read suddenly a lot more things about Ray made sense.

  “Holy shit,” he muttered, making his way around for a better look. He heard the same sentiment from Cisco, who appeared next to him, eyes drinking in every number on the blueprints.

  “God damn. You’re like a for real genius,”

   “Aw, you’re sweet, Cisco!” he leaned between the two of them at the cortex desk, his spicy cologne wafting through the air deliciously. Leonard chanced a look his way, eyes drawing slowly up Ray’s thick, ridiculously well built arms that were barely contained with in his tight under armor.

  (Len hated himself for thinking _well, I can’t fault Lisa for lying. He_ is _hot_.)

  “So what do you guys thing?? You got any ideas?”

  The two of them _erupted_ in ideas, talking over each other in a nearly ear aching way.

  “Oh, wow, so that’s a yes.” but his follow up was ignored.

  When they got to working, all the antagonism— performative and otherwise— between him and Cisco melted away. They were both passionate to a fault, which is why they clashed the way they did, but working together combined their passions in a stream that was basically unstoppable.

  It was also intelligible to anyone who’s not either of them, since they barely needed to speak.

  “Hardware?” Cisco asked.

   Leonard nodded, “Oxide fuel cells first. The program?”

   “May be overheating the system,”

   It was a brilliant thought— Cisco had a lot of those. He spun up in his usual sporadic stumbles, his excitement obvious. He really couldn’t help himself around any new nut to crack, any way to challenge his mind— his fingers almost shook as he began to scribble an equation across the whiteboard. Leonard let him go, shrugging himself into the closest chair and rolled towards his work station.

   Ray looked confused by the sudden shift in energy. _Served him right,_ he thought bitterly then immediately stomped that thought out because that was edging disturbingly close to a Harrison Wells opinion. Instead, he decided to completely ignore him, pulling his kit out, throwing on his glasses. He knew how to do this, how to fix things, so he let his hands work on their own.

   Outer casing, inner wiring around the core. Together with soldering. Maybe the programming wasn’t the program— it could be the casing itself, not allowing for temperature regulation. Leonard pulled out his mini blowtorch, stretching his fingers through the protected gloves. He melted the soldering, putting it off to the side to cool slightly, tearing off his glove.

   When he looked up, Ray was right in front his desk, giant brown eyes glued on him.

   “ _Jesus_ , wear a bell,”

   “I didn’t catch your name,”

   “I didn’t throw it.” he snapped, “ _Besides,_ don’t you already know?”

   “No. You’re the one mystery among all of these guys. After everything went wrong here, your boss was smart and completely erased all photographic evidence of anyone who worked here, for their sake. Just left their names, which is more than enough for me. Their records are _highly_ public— pictures everywhere, tagged posts, papers… easy to paste the pieces together into a who’s who off the STAR Labs employee sheet. But you? You’re a _ghost_. I could only narrow it down to about a dozen names you could be,”

   “And you want me to just tell you, so you can dig up all my skeletons? Just giving myself up is not an appealing offer, Ray.”

   “No, I guess it’s not…” he grimaced, but rounded back quickly, “Well, what if I promise I won’t look you up?”

   “What?”

   “I mean, I know enough about everyone else here, I can’t imagine any dirt on you is really gonna help one way or another. No offense.” he shrugged, “Besides, you sorta fascinate me— I’m not sure I want to spoil getting to know you.”

   “And what motive do I have to believe that?”

   “None, really. You’d just have to trust me,”

   “Yeah, pretty boy, that’s not really a hobby of mine,”

   Ray’s eyebrows raised, intrigued more than anything else. He was resigned for a second, obviously turning an idea over in his head. The sight was pretty, but Leonard made the executive decision to stop noticing that about _Ray_ and turn back to his work.

   “Raymond Palmer.”

   It was Leonard’s turn to raise an eyebrow now. It wasn’t a quiet exclamation; loud enough that it got Cisco’s attention and brought that _what’s hell is going on here_ confused look to his face

   “What?” Leonard repeated for far too many times.

   “That’s _my_ name. Raymond Carson Palmer,”

   He knew his mouth was still agape, he could feel it but _couldn’t_ fix it, “That’s your real name?”

   “So it says on birth certificate,”   

  “You realize this means you broke into a _lab_ , knowing full well a _forensic scientist_ works there, committed a crime, and then _willingly told us your full government name,”_

   “Yeah, basically.”

   “Oh my god,” Leonard said, airily, “You’re a fucking idiot.”

   “Sure, but I’m an idiot you have dirt on now. Next best thing to trust is mutual blackmail,” Ray- _Raymond_ \- grinned, leaning forward on his forearms to get a little too close to Leonard, “So, now that you know I’ll keep my word... do I get a name?”

    He didn’t really know _why_ he was even considering answering: maybe it was _Ray._ The guy was hot, yeah, charming, _sure_ but that didn’t _erase the_ fact that this was dumb— just at a core level it was _dumb._ Forget that it went against every one of his instincts, down to the thieving ones Lewis had instilled in him; he knew it was dumb for Team Flash. The risk of word getting out how the Flash worked closely with an associate of the _Snarts_ , the oldest son no less—

   “Snart. Leonard Snart.”

   Yeah. He was deeply broken inside.

   “Leonard.” a saccharine smile spread across his face, “I like that name,”

   “Well, now, we know you’re a liar too, so that’s nice.”

   Ray’s laugh was only slightly drowned by Cisco’s sudden speech, “Okay, I’m sorry to dwell on the past here, but are we ignoring you basically just admitted to a string of robberies!?”

  “I didn’t really. Well, yeah I did, to _you guys_ but I cut off all the cameras and recorders before I even got with in twenty feet of the building, so you have no evidence to prove it.” he said conversationally, “All my jobs were impossible to trace. Including this one— though mostly thanks to these microtech gloves,”

   “Microtech?” Cisco asked like he genuinely wanted to know.

   “They’re extremely small microchips, basically invisible to the eye that creates small modifications to the wearer. I use it to get nullify my fingerprints. So I haven’t left a single print for Barry to find,”

   “Oh.” He took the tiniest pause before continuing, “How attached are you to the name _micro tech,_ because if you ask me, _nanotech_ has a way better ring to it,”

   Ray gasped, ridiculously, “ _That’s brilliant,”_

   “Yes, Ramon, please continue to give the gadgets the _criminal_ uses to _commit crimes_ fun names. That _is_ brilliant.”

   “I’m not the one who willingly told him who I was…” he muttered, returning to the equation and Leonard _ignored_ that that was _technically_ valid.

   It was still a dumb comeback.

   The melted solder on the fuel cells finally cooled down enough for Leonard to handle. Everything inside looked _fine_ — there was no reason the suit should be malfunctioning. His mind cataloged through the design again. _The outer shell, the inner wiring, the inner cell, the core…_ he spun around, squinting at the design still on the monitor, mind whirring in like an old computer.

  “Cisco,” he called, the kid turning around expectedly, “It’s not the programming”

  He squinted, “The fuel cells?”

  “They’re over heating the system, they have no temperature regulation.”

  “Well, what if they’re lined with a ceramic compound?” he said like it was obvious and not fucking _brilliant._

  Ray exclaimed excitedly behind them, “Oh my god, that’s _amazing!”_

  Cisco beamed at the compliment, seemingly not caring that it was coming from a felon, not that Leonard could rally judge him there. He spun the whiteboard around, starting a whole new problem, “Giving it a way to self regulate, it shouldn’t want to release the excess heat through the laser systems,”

  “Which means I won’t accidentally shoot any people on their way to supermarket,” he laughed, excitedly, “You guys are _incredible!_ ”

   “Please, Raymond, be careful. Keep talking pretty like that and we’ll switch sides,” he deadpanned.

   “Don’t tease me, Len,” he beamed, “I’ll take you up on that.”

   They stared at each other, Leonard finding it a little hard to look away because he _really_ like the way _Len_ sounded on his tongue. Cisco cleared his throat; Leonard’s eyes flickering away to the kids, who was looking a little too proud of himself.

   “Do you have dental?”

   Ray threw his head back, laughing more, “No, but my cousin’s a dentist?”

   “Hm tempting, but I think I’ll stay with the law abiding citizens. They at least have _insurance_ ,”

   “Aw, well that’s just no fun Cisco,” he pouted, “But if that’s how it’s gonna be… just all my loss.”

   Cisco snorted, but Leonard could see the blush flooding his cheeks just a little. It was cute, he didn’t get to see Cisco so aflutter. Maybe he should compliment him more, since it seemed he was much more agreeable this way. Then again, that would involve _complimenting_ Cisco and that was just not how their dynamic worked.

   Scribbling the equation he was just working on to a pad, Cisco ripped off the sheet and pushed it against Ray’s chest, “Here’s the chemical composition you’re looking for. Follow that and line the— what do you think, Leonard? Inner wiring?”

   “Outer shell,” he responded, tossing the fuel cell to Ray, who caught it sloppily.

   “Right, line the outer shell and it should disperse the temperature,” he pushed his fingers through his hair, the stress of the situation apparently catching up to him, “It seems like that’s where your problems lay, so—”

   Before Cisco could finish that thought however, footsteps sounded from the hallway, the whirring of a wheelchair harmonizing and everything went into slow motion. As Caitlin, Barry, and Wells rounded the corner, Ray was already at the side of the suit, minimizing it back to its army man size and slipping it into his pocket. Leonard jumped on instinct towards Cisco, pushing him against the wall and pulling the gun off the desk, at the ready— Barry’s eyes widened significantly as they skated across the scene. There were only seconds before he moved so Leonard worked up the best thing to catch him up to speed.

   “He’s Super Shrinker— he knows who you are—”

   Okay, maybe not the best choice, since that instantly sent Barry into _Flash_ mode, speeding towards the center of the cortex like a bat out of hell, and that was good to know, He’ll be more careful with his word choice next time.

   “Barry—” Wells and Cisco both called out but he was already gone.

   Before anyone else could even move, Barry had Ray in a bear hold, “How the hell did you figure that out!?”

   “Well, this has been fun,” Ray said instead, only slightly breathless from the clutch.

   “What?” Barry asked, brow furrowed.

    “Thanks so much for you help, you guys” he said, earnestly, but Leonard’s eyes moved to the slow movement on his hip, clocking along, “And I hate to do this, because again, you guys are great but—”

    _He’s reaching for his pocket,_ Leonard was about to call out when Ray hands whipped out of his pocket and threw something down— Barry didn’t notice it in time, until a triangular _thing_ attached to the floor, a blue laser field shot out five feet across the linolumn. Barry’s eyes skewered in confusion, body jerking to get out grab it, but his— he moved _slowly._ Like a normal person.

   Oh, fuck.

   “Sorry, Barry!” Ray called as he slipped through Barry’s grip, elbow shooting up against Barry’s nose causing a recoil, “You really do seem like a nice guy!!”

   His hands went up to his nose, blood seeping through the space, swearing in a very _un-Barry like way_. Ray dodged his last ditch jump at him easily, spinning to wink at Leonard before he ran past a stunned Caitlin and Wells, who both looked like they couldn’t even move. His running footsteps sounded all the way down the hall until he heard the reverberating sound of the front door shutting.

   At the _clack,_ it was like the room came back to life— Cisco pushed Leonard off him roughly, only to have Caitlin jump at him, checking every visible piece of skin for any marks. Mouth going a mile a minute, as Cisco batted her hands away. Wells rolled towards them, cutting Leonard’s path towards the door off.

   “Calm down, Mr. Snart—”

   “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Wells, but I’m the only one here who _is_ calm! Except for Cisco, who also knows _nothing_ happened!”

   “What?”

   Whatever Wells was going to follow that with, their attentions got called as the the laser field shorted out, sparks flying all over the place, and Barry speed out, around the cortex for a lap before landing where he was, eyes wild and confused.

   “What just—”

   “It seems he manufactured some hardware to neutralize your speed, temporarily,” Wells answered, voice strained with stress, “And it _also seems_ , we have a problem with our friend, Mr. Super Shrinker,”

   “Atom,” Cisco said blankly, at the same time, Leonard rolled his eyes and said, “His name is _Ray_.”

   “Yeah, no _shit_ !” Barry exclaimed, ignoring the two of them, “Dr. Wells, he _broke into the lab_ and _tortured our friends;_ I think he might just be a problem!”

   “Oh, we were tortured? Cisco, did you hear that? _Apparently_ we were tortured. Nobody tells me these things,”

   “What Snart’s trying to say is that he didn’t hurt us,” at Caitlin’s pitied look, Cisco threw up his hands defensively, “Really! He just showed up, with a gun and asked me— didn’t even tell me, the guy said _do you mind_ — to text Snart in here to help fix his suit,”

   “What was wrong with it?” Barry and Wells chorused, though one was  _significantly_ calmer than the other.

   “It was shorting out,” Leonard said, “The system was overheating itself, which made the laser systems go off at random times. He had us look at the schematics,”

   “He let you look at the schematics?” Wells asked.

   They both nodded and Wells looked incensed.

   “Were you two able figure out a way to slow Ray’s down?”

   “More or less the same thing that we fixed. Overworking the system— either by rapid change in temperature or overload commands,” Cisco tied his hair up as he moved towards the whiteboard, expo marker between his teeth, “I think I can try to spit back as much of those plans as I can, but it won’t be a masterpiece,”

   “Wonderful— anything else?”

   Leonard spoke before really processing it, “Gluten.”

   The team paused, and he felt every eye on them, “What?”

   “He has a gluten allergy,” he said dryly.

   Barry’s ridiculous eyebrows furrowed, “Did he… _tell_ you that?”

   “I met him at a grocery store a few days ago. He asked me if spelt was gluten free,”

   “He stalked you!?” Wells shrilled, as Caitlin asked genuinely confused, “Isn’t spelt literally wheat?”

   “It was coincidence,” he grumbled, “Look, I know the suit design and the figuring out Barry is impressive and all but… the guy’s sort of an idiot.”

   Everyone looked confused at him, but Cisco paused in his scribbling, looking over his shoulder, face resigned, “I mean… he told us his _full name_ ,”

   “ _What?!”_

 

***

 

   Cisco found him after they all calmed down (read: convinced Barry they were fine), lounging (read: _not_ hiding) in the engineering break room holding a book he wasn’t reading.

   “He was _hitting_ on you,” he said with no preamble.

   “I’m aware of that,”

   “He was like… laying it in _thick_. It was shameless.”

   “I’m aware of that also,”

   He bounced on the balls of his feet in that way kids did, waiting for the moms to finish talking at a grocery store. Leonard had the sinking suspicion he was working up to a punchline.

   “You know…” he drew out every syllable, “you were _sorta_ flirting back,”

   The goddamn prick was quick enough to dodge the book Leonard threw at him, but his cackles bounced off the walls long after he scurried away.

 

*** *** ***

 

    The next time Raymond Palmer came up on their radar, he was in a shootout with half the police in the precinct after trying to hold a CEO of a shipping corporation hostage. Barry had ran there as soon as he heard Joe arrived on scene, with an urgency unmatched for a crime claiming no casualties so far.

   “ _Flash! It’s good to see you!_ ” Ray’s voice distortion didn’t cover his genuine enthusiasm, “ _How’s your nose? Did it heal alright_?”

  Leonard snorted, but stopped when Caitlin’s bony elbow shoved itself in his ribs. Barry had left in such hurry, he hadn’t grabbed any of Leonard for help so he was left to drape himself around the cortex with the others.

   Barry sighed over the comms, “ _Atom_ . _What are you doing, man? If you wanted to hang out, you coulda just called”_

    His laugh sounded even stranger through his technology, the laser sounds still going off in the background, “ _Ah, but I got work to do, Flash!”_

    “ _What are you trying to prove here, Atom? What has Gorzos ever done to you?”_

    “ _The man runs his productions through child labor, and doesn’t follow safety conditions in his facilities. Over two-hundred workers have been injured this year alone, Flash, it doesn’t_ matter _he hasn’t done anything directly to me,”_

     Behind him, Cisco whistled lowly, “Damn. He kinda got a point, though?”

    “Those are all ethical questions,” Wells said, creepily devoid of opinion, “It is not our job to judge those crimes, Mr. Ramon,”

    “ _Come on… this isn’t the way to handle that,”_ Barry said, pleadingly. If Leonard didn’t know any better, he’d say the speedster sounded _regretful_ to have to fight Ray.

    “ _Eh… agree to disagree. Though, I am glad you’re here!”_

    “ _Haven’t heard that one a lot,”_

    “ _I have a question I wanted to ask you! About Len!”_

    “ _What?”_

   “ _Leonard, that’s your friend’s name right? The hot one with the eyes that just go straight through you?_ ”

    The lab got eerily quiet, as Leonard froze instantly, hands gripping the desk ready to flip it if he needed a distraction from this conversation.

   “ _I… what?”_

    “ _I just wanted to ask if_ you _knew if he was seeing anyone?”_

    For a second, it was silence except for the shots in the background and Barry’s throat noises as he gaped dumbly, “ _... what?”_

    Leonard could feel every eye on his back, which he fervently ignored as Ray _refused to shut up_.

   “ _Is he seeing anybody?”_

_“_ Why _are you asking me this!?”_

_“I want to know!”_

_“I’m trying to_ arrest _you!_ ” Barry’s voice was near hysterical confusion

   Wells cleared his throat behind him, but the noise didn’t cancel out Caitlin and Cisco’s barely concealed giggles and Leonard really wished he had gone into a life of crime.

 

*** *** ***

 

   It took all of three seconds with the guy to determine that Leonard was not going to get on very nicely with the Arrow.

  Felicity was sweet— a little excitable, but smart as hell and Leonard could respect anyone with the skills she toted around so casually. _She_ could come around whenever she liked, if for no other reason than to charm the pants off Wells. And Diggle was a little intense, but he was fun to mess with and obviously star struck with all the tech around the lab. Plus, Cisco’s little competitive crush on him was hilarious to watch.

  But Arrow? He was just too much— too _man pain_ , too much _drama_ , it was exhausting. His dismissive complaints over the comm at Cisco’s rambling or grunts of ignorance at Caitlin’s suggestions were slowly making the vein in Leonard’s forehead beat faster. If Leonard had wanted to spend his days with a giant, entitled, self absorbed _prick_ he would visit his father in prison.

  Bah-da-dutzz.

  After his fourth snapped response and third broken pen, it was obvious that everyone was catching up with his annoyance. (Caitlin had already slipped him so advil, patting him on the shoulder comforting; as where Cisco had been suspiciously professional as they worked.) So, when the opportunity arose to escape the lab to drop off equipment at the station, basically everyone pushed him out the door with the case pushed against his chest and relieved goodbyes.  

  He was so excited to be away from that rich asshole, it wasn’t till he was standing in the atrium of the police station, with a whole sea of officers evaluating him that he remembered that oh yeah. He was a _Snart._

  Through the glass of the bullpen, West caught his eye, gesturing in a way Leonard _guessed_ meant to stay there, which he dutifully obeyed. A few older detectives passed by him, eyes trained on his face like they were trying to place him somewhere. He pulled the _STAR Labs_ case closer to his body as he tipped his head to them, greeting with a low drawn _gentlemen._

  West was at his side before the men had a chance to ask any questions, exchanging those _secret brotherhood of cops_ nods that seemed to carry more weight than a _normal_ nod, but they kept moving so Leonard wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  “You look way too comfortable walking in here for a guy with _your_ record, Snart.”

  “My _expunged_ record,” he tutted, “Besides, most of that was as a minor, detective, I can’t imagine any cops that booked me as a kid are still _young_ enough to be mobile, let alone in active duty,”

  A laugh tugged very apparently on the corner of West’s lips, that he was visibly _fighting_ to keep from popping up. For a cop, West was shockingly bad at lying and he was even worse at keeping his growing fondness for the STAR Labs employees underwraps, _even_ for Leonard despite everything.

  “Real clever, Snart, you think you’re real _clever_ ,”

  “I’m just here to drop off some evidence Cisco scrounged up for the Bivolo case. As well as this,” he popped the case up on the check in desk, chuckling at the interest _ooh_ from West, “ _These_ are glasses me and Ramon whipped up. They should neutralize his powers, since they have the same color frequency as Bivolo’s eyes,”

  West was playing with one of the frames, holding them up to the light, “So... they’re red.”

  “Yeah, they’re red.”

  “You could have just said that, you know, didn’t need to get all fancy about it,”

  He sighed, leaning against the counter with his full weight, “Sorry. I’ve been spending all day having to deal that green hooded asshole, I forgot what it was like to be around _regular people,_ with social skills and the whole works. It’s like breathing fresh air about a gas bomb, _”_

  “I’ll drink to that,” West muttered, “I have no idea why Barry continues to defend that prick.”

  “Blind, dumb trust. He’s too damn good for his own health,”

  “Only you would think that’s a net negative,” he chuckled, “Though, I gotta say, I am surprised _you_ don’t like the green son of a bitch,”

  “Why’s that?”

  West got a look on his face, freakishly like Barry’s when he was gearing up for a punchline which was _not_ a very comforting look.

  “Well, I heard about Robocop and you. I figured bad boys are your type,”

   Leonard felt his eye twitch.   

  “I am going to kill Cisco.”

   His deep laugh bounced across the whole station, his colleagues barely paying any mind to his hysterics, or the poor, red faced victim standing furious in front of him. This was supposed to be a _police station_ , Leonard should be getting harassed like this in a place of justice, “Damn, he really wasn’t kidding huh? Look at you— you look like a twelve year old crush! Oh, my god, you’re _adorable!_ ”

  “I’m having an aneurysm,” he deadpanned, schooling his face into careful neutrality.

  “Aw, come on, Snart. It’s nothing to be ashamed of! I looked up his file— Palmer’s got a jawline to write home about. Anyone would be _swooning—_ even I had to have Eddie to pull up a fainting couch,”

  “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with a man who arrested me four times,”

  “I wear many hats, Lenny,” West clapped a hand on his back, laughing fatherly as he made his way back into the bullpen with the case, “Thanks for the glasses! Send me an invite to your wedding,”

 

*** *** ***

 

   “I really am sorry about this,”

   Leonard didn’t dignify that with a response, eyebrow quirking instead at the man who looked way too flustered to be in the middle of a kidnapping.

  It was already shaping up to be a long day— something exploded at a fundraiser for the mayor’s re-election campaign, footage showing that it was a dark red box bomb, branded with an _A—_ clearly, Ray’s tacky calling card _._ Barry had raced over there, toting with him a new temp gun Cisco had prototyped (after their time spent with the Atom schematics, finding ways to overwork the system seemed to be the best way to take him down) only to find the scene empty, calling for Leonard to make him way over for a second set of eyes.

  It was _textbook;_ they really should have seen it coming between villain handbook and their god damn bad luck , when Leonard ducked out the Lab alone he was _bound_ to be knocked out by a concussive bomb and dragged into a van.

  Though he more or less knew it was going to be underwhelming when he woke up to see Ray, standing over him, feeding him ice chips. Waking up was half an hour ago, apparently four hours after he was snatched, and here Leonard was, ice pack pressed to his head, walking around free without any restraints or blindfolds, and firm in his conclusion that Ray was pretty bad at this whole thing.

   Then again, Ray’s smart. He wouldn’t be letting Leonard roam free unless he had ensured there as no way to possible escaped. Leonard scoped out the room— they stood in the middle of some sorta empty warehouse, within what looked like an old boxing ring. The whole facility looked like it had seen better days however— ever square inch was cluttered with rusty shelves bending under the weight of their contents.

  The only clear surface was the ring, that only contained a few ratty armchairs scattered around and a messily topped desk. This was _not_ a primary headquarters, that much was obvious, which mean Ray likely felt no qualms wreaking havoc. He looked up to the rafters and surely enough, large projector looking tech was hanging on the four corners of the ring, a thin blue projected sheet handing about two feet down before disappearing into nothing.

   Leonard sighed, “Lemme guess. Force fields? Probably with a genetic signature that means I can’t leave, but you can?”

   He at least had the decency to grimace as he nodded, “I knew you could get your way out of anything else, so you know. Always prepared. Boy scout motto…”

  Cue the eye roll, “Of _course_ you were a boy scout.”

  “Eagle technically.” he cut himself off like he realized that didn’t really matter, before his mouth exploded again, “I really do feel just awful! If it wasn’t cause I needed to distract you all, I swear I wouldn’t of done this!”

   “You were trying to hold something over them, so you kidnapped _me?”_ Ray nodded, and he _tch_ ’d his tongue, “Bad choice, _Atom_. I’m not exactly a big enough ransom— in fact, you may be doing them a favor, getting me out of their hair. Shoulda chose Cisco— abandoning him would be like leaving a puppy in the rain,”

   His pretty brow furrowed, mouth tight, “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Leonard. You’re a hard man to hate.”

  “That is _not_ a popular opinion,” he leaned back in the chair, legs thrown over the side, “So you got a plan here, pretty boy? Gonna torture me for information?”

  Ray looked a little thrown at that, bless his heart, “What? No! If I wanted information, I’d get it myself. You guys are really bad keeping secrets, it would take a cursory google search to take you down,”

  Despite himself, he laughed. The bastard was too charming, “Fair enough,”

  “Look, I just need to keep your team busy while a few plans I have in the wings play out, promise. I don’t want to hurt you or anything. Not that I’d think you’d even _let_ me get that close,”

  “Well presumed, Palmer,” Leonard watched as Ray moved behind his desk, pulling out the skeletons of some mechanical chimera, “So what? You’re just going to do some work, while I sit here and watch in silence? Criminal mastermind.”

  That gave him another piece of pause, as he moved some stacks around on the desk, “We could play music?”   

   The tale tell scratch of the needle hitting the record opened for a soft _pluck_ of piano and a slow croon caress its way from the speakers. _You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips…._

   Leonard frowned, “Is this from _Top Gun_?”

   “No. Maybe. Yes,” he threw his hands up, “How did you _get_ that so quickly?”

   “Everything about you screams _guy who buys movie soundtracks_ ,”

   “Well, I mean. _You_ recognized it.”     

   “It’s a good movie,” he muttered ignoring the charmed little laugh Ray let out.

   “Aha! See, I knew behind that cold exterior you’re just a big of a nerd as the rest of us!” he beamed.

   “I am an engineer, Raymond. We’re not exactly the _jocks_ of the hard sciences,”

   After Ray’s laugh died down from that, they were quiet for a minute. The music wafting around them, percussed by the occasional clack of Ray’s working. Leonard was still a little lost at this whole situation. He had only been around a few times, tangentially, when his dad had kept someone for information and this… isn’t how it went, usually.

   Meaning there was a lot more blood. The same amount of music from the fifties, though. Good to know that was consistent.

   The chorus was coming up when Leonard finally spoke again.

   “You’re kind of shitty at this whole _villain_ thing,”

   “Well that depends on you perspective I guess,” Ray sounded too at east with that, “If you ask me, I’m not so much of a _villain_ as a _roguish hero_ who doesn’t play by the rules,”

   “Who also commits crimes,”

   “I never said it was perfect metaphor.”

   “While I’ve _never_ been accused of being a goody-two-shoes, Raymond, even I don’t think Saint Peter would count stealing cash from fat cats to fund my _robotics team_ as a point towards hero,”

   He looked affronted at that, hands stalling in his work on the tech to glare a little, though it hardly looked right on Ray’s face, “Well, firstly, I’m Jewish so I don’t know about Peter’s whole _schtick_ , but it is _not_ a money thing,”

   “Oh, that’s why you continue to steal it, right.”

   Ray waved that away with his giant hand, “That’s all dirty green stuff. Look, if I wanted to be rich, I’d be rich,”

   “And he’s humble, too,”

   “It’s not arrogance, it’s just true. I’m smart enough to be one of those billionaires— maybe in another life I would’ve been one. Trust me. This is not about the money, Leonard.”

   “Then what _is_ your manifesto? Revenge? Political point? Sociopath?”

   “We live in a broken system. These rich guys, the cops, all of them— they all feed into a passive resistance that _harms_ the people it’s meant to protect and yet, we’re all supposed to just be okay with it?”

   “So you’re anti-establishment?”

   “That system failed me, and I… I lost someone I loved because of it. Afterwards, it was like nothing happened— the cops only say her death as a _symptom_ of a larger issue. Barely even called me in for question. So. I built the suit, and tried to find some why to bring justice of those they failed.” he shook his head, “That’s why I have no real beef with your Flash— I really don’t— he’s trying to help, I see that, but it’s impossible to make change from within the system. He’s not willing to make any sacrifices to get there. Steal to give back, lie to get the honest...”

   “You gotta break a few of eggs to make an omelet.” he said slowly, mind racing back to Mick’s favorite motto, the words not sounding right in his own mouth.

   He looked a little surprised at Leonard’s response, “Exactly.”

   “That’s why you donate all your money to charity, then. It’s really not about you,”

   “I just want to make a difference for the people who have to _live,”_

   He hummed, chest tightening in a familiar way. It felt like he was talking to _Lisa_ , rehashing that old fight and going over thee same words, _why are you doing this, you’re better than this, you can do more that this…_

   The comparison sort of scared him.  

   “You know,” he said before he even realized he was speaking, “My father would have hated you,”

   That was obviously another swerve ball for Ray, who looked even more confused than before, “Sorry?”

   “No, no. That’s a good thing, trust me.”

   “Oh… thank you,” Ray evaluated him, brown eyes trying to piece something together, “I…”

   He didn’t finish whatever thought he had, just resigned them to sit with silence stretching between them. Leonard let him, not really knowing what to say himself, too caught up in the past. His eyes flashed up to Ray, and thought that maybe, Ray was too. Finally, the other man spoke up again.

   “What about you, Leonard? You don’t strike me as an idealist.”

   “I’m not. I don’t get that luxury,”

   Ray swung around, his arms crossed as he leaned back next to Leonard's legs against the desk, “Then why do you stick with Team Flash?”

   “After the lab went boom, there wasn’t exactly a huge line of people knocking at the door of a disgraced electrical engineer who’s last project nearly blew up the city. Sticking around kept me busy,”

    Ray raised an eyebrow, “You really expect me to accept that? Come _on_ , I opened up to you! Return the favor, it’s _fun!_ What is really keeping you?”

    Leonard wasn’t in the habit of defaulting to honesty. He wasn’t _raised_ like that, he didn’t _trust_ like that. But Ray’s eyes insisted on genuity, pleaded for honesty. Leonard wasn’t sure it was possible for anyone to lie to him, so he was barely surprised when he spoke again.

   “I… there is a lot you don’t know about me, Raymond.”

   The other man didn’t respond, which Leonard couldn’t fully tell if he was thankful for or not. Instead of dwelling on that, he soldiered on, the words feeling like bile.

   “I didn’t grow up with the idea that people were _good,_ inherently I mean. I was raised to be jaded, to have no faith in anything because everything good was just waiting to turn rot. I tried to push against that, ignore it for years. I went to school, got a job at STAR Labs… I _tried_ to be a part of a something that was a _net positive._ So, when the accelerator exploded, I wasn’t surprised. Wasn’t even upset. I just thought to myself, _well. Obviously. It was bound to go wrong,_

   “Barry though. He rolled out of that coma and with in twenty-four hours turned this tragedy that happened to him— this thing that Caitlin and Cisco and I hadn’t even called by _name_ since it happened— he turned it into something… _good_. A way to help people, because he sees the value in everyone.”

    His voice was shy, in a way he hadn’t heard in a very long time, almost hoarse from his long speech, feeling… conscious of every sound “I… well. I guess I want to believe in the world Barry sees,”

   That silence stretched between them again, Leonard’s eyes caught in an unmoving staring contest with Ray’s. It wasn’t a challenge though. For once, he was meeting someone head on and instead of trying to get a rise out of them, it was like he was asking Ray _was that okay?_

   He sort of hated it.

   “Wow.” he breathed out, voice hard to pin down, “Well. That’s a pretty good reason,”

   Leonard shrugged, as if any performative coolness was going to convince Ray of his apathy now, “I’m trying to look in to the whole _idealism_ thing. See what gets Barry so excited.”

   Interestingly, a frown curled its way onto Ray’s face for just a moment before he schooled it back into his usual innocence “So, how long have you and him been dating?”   

   Despite himself, he burst into hysterics— which sounded almost manic even to his own ears. The sound of gaffing seemingly surprised Ray into a slight jump, but Leonard barely noticed through his teary eyes, “ _Barry?_ Please! I would _break_ that boy in half, are you _kidding me?!_ ”

   That broke whatever was stringing between them, the tension crashing in a glorious dam break. His own laughter calmed into an honest, breathless sort of snorting, and Ray joined in with his own genuine chuckling, shoulders shaking with his giggles.

   “I’m sorry, I just assumed—” his apologies were counterproductive against his obvious relief.

   “No, _no._ Even if it wasn’t for the fact I’m _fifteen_ years older than him, I like someone with a little more meat on his bones,” he said without thinking, and the laughter automatically stopped . The words settling with about as much comfort of a Charlie’s Horse between them.

   “That’s… that is good to know.” the smile was back on the corner of Ray’s lips, teasingly alluding to a suggestion that Leonard tried very hard not to think about.

   The tension was back, but it was… deeper.

   “We should…get coffee sometime,”

   “Without you threatening my friends?”

   He laughed, quietly under his breath, “I mean, if that will motivate you, I can but it sure is a lot of work,”

   “Just coffee?”

   “Just coffee.”

   Leonard felt the corners of his mouths lift, a little crookedly and brutally honest, “I’d like that.”

   “I already put my number in your phone,”

   “Of course you did.”

   The silence between them popped like an ear on an airplane with the clatter of steel doors against concrete and a distinct _woosh_ , as the loose rubble around them flew in the air and a bright red suit appeared in front of him.

   “Come _on_ , Ray! This is really _not_ cool!”  


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is just to split up the mountain of text this turned into lol

   “Snart!” Cisco rounded the corner, with a voice way too bright for someone trying to find a murderer, “I got an idea and I need your devious yet talented hands!”

   He spun lazily to face him. Cisco may annoy the ever loving hell out of him sometimes, but he couldn’t deny his soft spot for the kid; he was brilliant. When he had an idea, Leonard had learned to listen up, “Feel free to share with the class.”

   “I think we can fashion an _ electronic barrier. _ We set up a ton of super capacitors,  we smooth out the inflection points, and  _ voila—  _ a kick ass force field,”

   He reviewed the idea in his mind, mentally drawing up some rough schematics, “It could work.”

   “I think it could be our best way of catching the Opposite Flash!”

   Leonard raised his favorite eyebrow.

   “That was me, testing out a name,” he grinned goofily, “How you like it?”

   “Just like every other name you’ve ever made, it’s awful and frankly should be a war crime, ”

   “Cruel, Snart. That’s cruel.” he spun to Caitlin, who hadn’t moved from the stoop, “Come on, back me up, Caitlin!”

   Instead of  of her usual haughty, begrudging reply to their banter, however, Caitlin remain silent, just staring at her feet.

   He furrowed his brow, “Snow,”

   She didn’t move. He and Cisco exchanged glances, the younger man’s eyes distinctly worried.

   “Snow,” he called again, this time a little sharper. She finally looked up, barely present so he softened his voice just a little, “Caitlin. Are you alright?” 

   Sitting there with her arms gripping themselves, curled into a ball, it suddenly dawned on Leonard how  _ small  _ she looked. Like she had the night the accelerator blew up. 

   The night Ronnie—

   “Ronnie’s alive,” her voice broke with every noise.

   Okay, never mind.

   There was a sick stillness between them for a moment— neither he nor Cisco dared to move, as if it would shock her and it seemed like Caitlin was already too shocked to consider it. 

   Cisco chanced a go first, “Caitlin…”

   “I saw him, I think he... was following me”

   “Snow, he… Ronnie died. The accelerated vaporized him, completely. You calculated this, a zero percent chance at—”

   She cut him off, voice stronger now, but still shaking, “He’s  _ alive _ . And he’s out there alone and scared!”

   Like a nervous kid, Cisco’s eyes flickered to Leonard for supporta little lost and confused, but when he finally spoke, he sounded sure, “Okay. What can we do?”

   “I don’t  _ know _ , but… I need to save him— we need to  _ find  _ him!”

   “Where would we even begin, I don’t…” 

   As Cisco’s hands stuttered around, he watched Caitlin’s face fall more with each second. They were never close, before the explosion, the four of them. It was always Ronnie, and Caitlin and Cisco together with Leonard lurking in the back, making snarky comments.  It was easier that way— easier for Leonard to limit the amount of people he cared for to keep the collateral to a minimum. It was a patented Snart coping mechanism, one he had had for his whole life.

   It wasn’t till that very second that it dawned on him Caitlin may have had the very same one. And he’d be damned if he didn’t have a soft spot for the emotionally stunted.

   Leonard sighed heavily, “I think I know someone who can help,”

 

***

 

  Things, as they often did, kicked into high gear almost immediately. By the time Cisco and he had finished putting the whole accelerator together (in record time, might he add,) the police swarmed in, all speaking the same plan over each other in a deafening monogamy. From what he could gather after he planted himself directly next to Joe, a squad of the police, along with Wells and Leonard were all going to be in the room when they trapped the Man in Yellow, where in Wells would lead the question and hopefully, Joe lead the arrest. 

  By the way Joe’s teeth were gnawing at the corner of his mouth, he could tell Joe was just about as confident as himself in the plan. It seemed half slapped together, and Leonard didn’t like a messy plan.

  Joe’s partner, Thawne, had apparently taken it upon himself to lead the who god damn operation, moving Cisco and Caitlin around as much as his own staff. He had already tried to direct Leonard, but after the minute and half of dead space Leonard gave him in response, he gave up on that pipedream. He was excitable, like Barry or Ray, but with half the charm and also, a police badge so Leonard had decided that was more than enough reason to unequivocally hate him.

  The little toaster apparently did not give up, however, as Thawne approached him again, “Snart, do you know the game plan?”

  “Please, my father was Snart. Call me Mr. Snart.”

  “Just answer the question,” he rolled his eyes, too haughty and pretentious.

  He blinked, slowly, “They talky, talky. We shooty, shooty. Try not to die,”

  Joe snickered next to him, but Thawne wasn’t so impressed, “You’re not hotshit for being a dick, Snart, you’re just putting yourself and everyone else at danger. I’m not even sure why Wells insisted on you being down there, but if you’re going to be with us, you need to be  _ with us  _ all the way.”

  “This isn’t my first rodeo, kid. I’m not going to step a toe outta line, don’t worry your pretty little head,” 

  “This isn’t like one of the  _ jobs  _ your dad pulled you on, you know. This is  _ serious _ ,’

  “Oh, is that why it seems like everyone of your men only half understand what’s going on? You know, regurgitating information is not the same as being prepared. Haven’t you ever taken an SAT?”

  Thawne opened his mouth to add something else, but a  _ buzz  _ in Leonard’s pocket distracted him. He glanced down, the screen lighting up with a call from a single initial,  _ R _ , “Hold that thought, blondie, I gotta take this,”

  He heard a comeback erupt behind him, a called  _ come back here! _ as he tried to leave, but Joe quickly shut down whatever his partner was saying with that  _ calm in a storm  _ way he had perfected. Leonard pulled the cold case off the desk and slipped out the cortex, weaving between cops. He didn’t pick up until he was in the relative quiet of the hallway.

  “Okay, before you say anything, I want you to know I  _ really  _ tried,” Ray’s blurted as soon as he picked up.

  “That’s a comforting greeting, Raymond, you should look into a career at Hallmark,”

  “Well, I have good news and bad news,”

  He shifted the phone between his shoulder and ear and crouched to begin putting the gun together, “Like my daddy always said, hit me with the bad new first,”

  “See, I feel like there’s a lot of baggage with that, so I’m gonna ignore it,” Ray ignored his snort, continuing, “So, it took a lot of favors and asking around— I talked to  _ Mark Mardon  _ for you so think of that next time you’re mean to me— but turns out, handsome twunks who burst into flames are pretty noticable—”

  “Is there a fast forward button here, boy scout?”

  “Right, anyway— I tracked him down to frequent this one underpass, by the Big Burger on I-44? I spent all of yesterday hanging out there, waiting for him to show up, and guess who did,”

  Leonard’s fingers stalled, “Wait— you  _ found  _ him?”

  “Yeah, isn’t that what you wanted me to do?”

  “Well,  _ yes _ , but I expected you to give me a list of possible leads not… not  _ him, _ ” for once in his life, he was at a loss for words, “Raymond, holy shit.”

  “I take it I did good?”

  “Let’s just say I am reviewing my long list of  _ sexual rewards _ , trying to find something this big and I’m coming up  _ dry, _ ”

  He heard Ray choke just a little, which would be cute if his mind wasn’t completely buzzing already, “Oh, wow,”

  There was a beat as Leonard tried to gather himself, slowly finishing the gun, “You really saw him?”

  “For starters, yeah.”

  “How did he look?”

  “Uh, well… awful? Definitely not taking care of himself and he was completely out of it— muttering like crazy and he did  _ not  _ like it when I went up to him,”

  “You  _ approached  _ him? Alone?! You  _ idiot! _ ”

  “I had the suit on me— it’s fireproof! Well, mostly.”

  “Oh my god, you could have gotten  _ killed. _ ”

  “Okay, okay,  _ sure,  _ but I didn’t! Because like I said, the suit is fireproof! Mostly, again, like to an eightieth percentile,”

  “I’ve run the statistic myself, Raymond. Try  _ sixty-third  _ percentile,”

  “Okay, remember five seconds ago when you liked me? Let’s get back to that energy,”

  “That was before I fully discovered how  _ stupid  _ you  _ truly  _ are,” 

  Ray ignored that, “Well, here comes the bad news,”

  “I’m sorry that was all the  _ good news?” _

  “He was… Len, he was hysterical. It was like he didn’t even know where or who he was. I tried to talk to him but he flamed up instantly. I even told him I was from STAR Labs, but nothing. If anything made him angrier, so… you know. My bad, but I didn’t get a chance to take it back before he tried to fry me up and then flew off into the night,”

  “Unfortunately, that seems to track with what Caitlin experienced as well,” he sighed, “Dammit,”

  “I’m sorry I don’t have better news,”

  “Don’t be, it’s not your fault. I just wish I could—” he cut himself off, suddenly very aware of who he was talking to.

  Ray didn’t let him hang, “Tell Caitlin her fiance was coming home?”

  “Yes.”

  “I really do too. Trust me.” a beat, “Can I give you some advice?”

   “I can’t stop you,”

   “ _ Gey pavolye, vestu gikher kumen _ .” his slip into Yiddish was smooth, soft, “Go slow and you’ll get there faster. It’s something my grandmother used to say. Be patient with him, he’s really traumatized. It’s going to take a lot for him to be okay again, so it’s going to be a process.”

   “So don’t give up easy?”

   “Yeah,”

   “Well, I never  _ have _ been known as a quitter.” 

  It was quiet between them for a second before a crash sounded behind him. Leonard whipped around— one of the cops was being yelled at by Cisco to  _ stop touching things!  _ He rolled his eyes.

  “It’s loud there.”

  “We got back up. For an issue.”

  “Anything to do with the mystery man running around in the banana suit?”

  “Now, now… why am I not surprised you know about that?” he smirked as Ray’s deep laughed sounded through the phone, “I can’t say anything about anything like that.”

  “Buzzkill.” the quiet stretched between them again but it was more content, “Merry Christmas, by the way,”

  “And a happy Hanukkah to you,”

  “That ended six days ago, but thanks,”

  “And Christmas isn’t for another five. Also I’m Jewish,”

   “You are?”

  “My mother was.”

  “You never told me that!”

   “To be fair, you never asked,”

   “Oh my god, I’m part of the problem—  _ wait!  _ Then how’d you know about St. Peter?”

   “I’m  _ cultured _ .”

   Before he could reply, another body entered the hallway, “Snart. Time to go,”

   He held up a single finger, the universal sign of  _ wait _ , half for purpose and half for the pleasure of seeing Thawne’s face skewer like he sucked on a lemon, “I have to deal with... some stuff,”

   Ray gasped, too excited, “Scary, scary Man in Yellow stuff?”

   He chuckled just a little, enjoying the fury it brought to the detective’s eyes, “ _ Yes _ . But thank you, for your help. Really. I… it means more than I can say.”

   There was a moment’s beat, before that terrible sincerity returned to Ray’s impossibly soft voice, “Of course. Anytime.” after another beat, he finished, “Don’t die.”

   With a snort, he hung up, grabbing his gear and lazily moved in front of Thawne, who looked ready to throttle him about now. Instead, Leonard just smiled at him smugly, his eyebrow quirked.

   “Who were you talking to?” Thawne asked and narrowed his eyes at him, jerking his head at the cold gun, “and do you have  _ that _ ?”

   Leonard blinked at him, completely unimpressed as he clapped him on the back, “Yeah...  _ you  _ don’t get to ask questions, Pretty.” 

 

***

 

   Just as quickly as it begun, it had gone to shit.

  It seemed fine for a moment, nearly a whole clockwise minute before that itching sensation returned to the back of his neck, a gnawing loom of  _ something’s not right here _ . Wells talked back with the man, in a cold almost rehearsed sort of way, Joe’s hands wavered just barely. Everything seemed  _ off _ , and Leonard felt himself teeter more and more towards the edge of his seat.

  “ _ Some would say I’m the Reverse,”  _

  Then, next thing he knew there was a line of dead policemen at his feet and Wells was sitting bloody and broken in the arc. Leonard jumped into  _ job  _ mode, senses flooding in with a cruel velocity as the ones left standing came alive with action.

   The man in yellow jumped towards Thawne next, and he shot on impulse before he could stop himself— it hit the corner of his leg, causing just a  _ fraction  _ of a pause, before he whipped around to face Leonard. His finger went to the trigger, but before he could pull, he was flush against the wall with a gloved hand tight around his throat and he was staring into the vibrating face of the Man in Yellow.

   “ _ Leonard Snart, _ ” the reverb was like cold ice running through his veins, “ _ Still utterly worthless,” _

   With that, he felt his nerves convulse as he was thrown across the room, the full body ache taking over before it was replaced with white hot pain. His mind hadn’t even caught up yet, when a impossible fast foot crush down on his tibia with a horrible  _ snap.  _ He cried out, the ringing in his ears deafening the rest of the commotion in the room. He looked up, vision blackening at the edges as he saw the blur pin Joe against the barrier.  _ I warned you not to hunt me—  _ His gun was across the room, he couldn’t get at it— he was going to have to watch, Joe West, the last good man die at the hands of a— 

   The tell tale yellow blur of Barry Allen swooped in and carried the body away, Joe dropped to the ground, and Leonard let himself pass out.

 

***

  He came to slowly, heading rolling lack on his neck as ceiling lights burning holes in his retinas, the smell of cleaning supplies suffocating his nostrils. His vision was getting clearer and clearer slowly, taking in the med bay around him, the bloody bandages in the waste and a sleeping Wells a few beds down, distinctly bruised. Noise was still hard to pin down at first, everything sounding like it was underwater before a loud ring broke through the fuzz. 

  Then the pain came in.

  “Fucking  _ spice on a cunt _ , that is unpleasant,” he groaned.

  The sound of his moans shocked Caitlin out of the near trance she was in next to his bed and she went into hyperdrive, “Oh my god,  _ Leonard _ -” a tiny flashlight appeared out of nowhere, shining in his eyes, “Pupillary response normal, blood pressure 120/80— vitals are high, but acceptable—”

  “Whoa, whoa, Snow,” he pushed her hand away, only for it to shoot right back up, “give me a second here, I barely know who  _ you  _ are,”

  Her eyes went wide.

  “Just a joke,” 

   “Not funny! This is not joke time! Leonard!!” her voice was getting hysterical, “You broke three ribs and your tibia was nearly  _ shattered _ into  _ pieces—  _ we are not  _ joking now! _ ”

  “Keyword being  _ nearly _ — I’m made of sturdy scaffolding, Snow,”   

   “You’re  _ lucky _ ,” Caitlin reprimanded, “At the force he threw you, it could of been a lot worse,”

   “And I know how low we are on casting material as it is…”

   “Leonard,  _ please _ . You’re forty-two, you don’t heal fast anymore, and you’re certainly not Barry— you  _ need  _ to be careful,” her voice caught, “We almost lost you.”

  He didn’t know what to say to that, “Careful… someone may think you care about me,”

  Anyone one else would have let it go, would have let him make the glib comment and pack it all away, but he should have known better. Not with the year Caitlin’s been having.

  “That’s because I  _ do _ . We all do. Leonard, you are so,  _ so  _ annoying. You push away any help we want to give you, you  _ barely  _ listen before you put yourself in danger— you’re sort of a dick,”

  “Ringing endorsement—”

  “Shut up and let me talk for once!!” her voice was  _ cutting _ , “Yeah, you’re not the easiest person to be around always, but Leonard, you are  _ good.  _ You care so deeply, and so fervently— you’d literally take a bullet for us. The  _ reason  _ you’re in this bed right now, is because you shot at a psychotic serial killer with  _ superspeed  _ to keep him from killing a cop you don’t even like! But you know we care about him, and you knew it was the right thing to do,” 

  She leaned over him, the proximity made it impossible to ignore the tears springing in the corners of her eyes, “And no matter how much you try to underplay that or deny it— I will not let you forget how good you are. Because we’re  _ family.  _ And I love you.”

  He felt a flush completely take over his face, eyes trained manically on his twiddling thumbs. There was a tightness in his chest, a tightness he didn’t like to think about, he didn’t want to confront. Her words were too… too something. 

  When she wanted to be, Caitlin could be  _ freakishly  _ like his sister, a fact he’s sure would shut her up completely. Leonard was good at that, finding the button to shut people up, but this time he didn’t push it. Instead he sat silent.

  “Say it back, asshole.” she snapped.

  He sighed, mouth feeling oddly like cotton, “I love you too.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Her anger dissipated almost instantly, her energy lowering to sheepish as she suddenly didn’t meet his eyes, “After you passed out, Barry took Reverse Flash to the alley. He— he nearly killed Barry before  _ Ronnie  _ showed up and light— and saved us.”

   “Are you okay?”

   She shrugged, but mostly ignored him, “He said someone from STAR Labs was looking for him.” her eyes finally met his again, this time steeled in something a little more knowing, just a corner of a smirk, “Tell Ray thank you for me,”

  “Do you want me to tell him  _ I love you  _ too, or?” 

  “Don’t test me, Leonard, I will put a catheter in,”

  He raised his hands in surrender, IV pulling uncomfortably on the back of his hand while his other brushed against soft petals. He turned, and saw an ostentatious bouquet of bright, fragrant roses and baby’s breath taking up his entire bedside table.

   “Did you bring me flowers?”   

   “I don’t love you  _ that _ much,” she deadpanned.

   “Then how did they get here?”

   “No clue. I left for an hour, and when I came back, it was here. They didn’t leave a note either, so,” 

   “It’s… well it’s tacky.”

   “Not exactly to the best taste, no, but it just goes to show you. People care about you, so get  _ used to it _ ” she brushed it off, picking up an empty cup, “Now. Please pee in this.”

 

*** *** ***

 

  Turns out, he got sick of people caring about him the moment Caitlin refused to let him in the field with a broken leg. Well, not the  _ first  _ moment— she had been ragging on him to take it easy for months and he most listened. Stuck at the Lab, or in a stake out well out of the way the action.

  But that was all before a car warehouse was broken into through gilded door and not a single car touched.

  “Are you  _ kidding—  _ do you know how many ways you could  _ destroy  _ your mobility by putting yourself in danger??  _ Absolutely  _ not!”

  “Need I remind you that I know Lisa better than  _ anyone  _ on this Earth? I am your  _ best  _ chance at catching up with that idiots!”

  “All your information can be gavin via comm,”

  “Snow, come on. It’s been almost  _ two months _ — I’m fine!”

  “The answer is  _ no _ ,” at her snip, Leonard cried out in frustration, whipping to where Cisco sat for support.

  Cisco put his hands up, a  _ keep me out of this _ gesture,“At the very least, it’s a union violation, dude.”

  “We don’t  _ have  _ a union,” he growled.

  “Damn, I guess we don’t. We should get on that,”

  “ _ Allen _ ! Back me up here, I’m fine! It’s not like you’re doing anything— you’re focused on your training montage,”

  The affronted looked a little caught in the headlights, “Len, I dunno. You just got back on your feet, and well… you’re decrepitly old as it is, your bones are already made of ash, I just don’t think you should be out there, running around—”

  Cisco’s hyena laugh rang across the cortex, silenced only when Leonard kicked the two legs keeping his chair on the ground and toupled him over, “ _ Okay _ , the point has been  _ made _ . You  _ monsters  _ want to keep me on the bench until I  _ die _ .”

  “Of old age, yes.” papers  _ wooshed  _ around as Barry dodged the crutch Leonard threw his way, and then even  _ annoyingly,  _ the crutch showed up next to him again, 

  “But it doesn’t matter— I’m not asking permission, I’m telling you what I’m doing.”

  “Did I not check your ears well enough? Are you  _ deaf?” _

  “Look, I appreciate that you’re worried about my fragile state, but this is a  _ recon  _ mission at best. Regardless of the fact she  _ will not  _ talk to Bartholomew, I know for a fact she has sensors for superspeed— she’ll sense him coming from miles away and be able to prepare. Our best chance at getting info is  _ me _ ,”

  “I still don’t like that,”

  “Think logically, doc. That’s my  _ sister.  _ I’m not gonna go in, guns blazing. I just want to talk to her, figure out what the game is. If she’s not even taking a breath to  _ steal  _ something, there must be something wrong,”

  “ _ Only  _ in your family,” Cisco muttered, shaking his head.

   “I agree with Leonard,” it was the first time Wells had spoken, face resting in his palm in his signature thinking position, “The last time you fought  _ Ms _ . Snart, a train derailed. You were lucky to get all those people to safety—  but if you don’t give her that fight…”

   “She may just back off,” Barry said regretfully.

   Wells nodded, rolling around the desk towards the center of the cortex, “If we send Leonard to investigate, there’s a chance we can solve whatever this is about much quicker. You need to be focused on taking down the Man in Yellow, and increasing yours speed. In the meantime, Cisco and I will find a way to counteract Golden Glider— yes I said it Cisco, I heard it the second it came out my mouth,”

   “Yeah, we can definitely find ways to neutralize Snart,” Cisco’s smirk had returned as he picked himself off the floor and steadied his chair. 

   “You may have a point…” Barry sighed, but still looked over his shoulder at a sulking Caitlin, feet planted firmly in the ground, shaking her head. 

  Her resolve was admirable, but Leonard was nothing if not a master at getting what he wanted. 

   So, he hobbled over to the desk and leaned across the top pathetically, trying to channel his best Ray, puppy dog eyes, “Come on, Cait.... you can’t keep me from seeing my family,”

  She frowned  _ deeply,  _ before her lips pursed sourly, an internal debate raging in her head. He turned up the  _ Ray Quality _ and pouted just a little.

    “Oh.  _ Fuck  _ you. Fine.”

 

***

 

   One of the few pieces of advice from their father that Lisa actually employed was her preclination for hiding out in warehouses.

   He couldn’t even really accredit that to their dad, if he didn’t want to. Sensically, they were just the best options— usually repo’d by old farmers who didn’t ask questions or care where the money came from, or if it was all in cash. Hard to trace, harder to prove ownership. He had been there when she secured her first one, a shitty old airplane hanger on the outskirts past a few farms and pretended not to notice when her hands shook, handing the money over but catalogued the beaming smile she turned to him with when the famer shrugged and said  _ alright. _

   He barely considered it for more than two seconds before driving over there.

   It looked the same weather worn and washed out; extra key still hidden in the fuel gage of the tractor parked outside; the first garage door imobile. He slipped in the side, like always, pausing to tap morse on the highest scaffolding. It was his code, from when he was still in the game, the first couple of lines from  _ Frère Jacques _ .

   Breaking into her apartment was one thing— but her place of business? That was a horse of a whole other color. That just was  _ asking  _ to get killed.

   He walked through the atrium, his cast making an odd sort of reverb in the air, half dragging half knocking. The surroundings looked the same as he remembered— high metal walls that curved at the very top, rust and spiderwebs growing in reckless abandon. Lisa’s shit was mixed in with the leftovers from the previous owner, purposefully. A fine forensic countermeasure, sloppy, but delays the process well enough.

   He reached a line of counters on the far east side, when something caught his eye. Or rather, the lack of something, because a random five feet at the end of was clutter free. Neat, uniform— wire circuiting and half built tech sorted into tiny groups. 

   It looked like his desk.

   And that just wasn’t right. Because Lisa was a  _ disaster _ . 

   “Leonard!?” a deep voice asked, a slight panic to the tone.

   He turned on instanct, hand going to his side holster, only to relax when he saw where the voice came from. Ray stood at the edge of the shelves, dressed down in sweatpants and a tight t-shirt, looking just as confused as Leonard was feeling.

   “What are you doing here? Dude, this is  _ not  _ a safe place to hang!” 

   “I could say the same for you,” he chewed, quirked an eyebrow as he moved closer.

   “I’m not the one with the broken leg!”

   “How do you know about that?”

   “I know about everything. Also, you’re wearing a cast— did you get my flowers, by the way?”

   Leonard rolled his eyes. He should have known, really, there was no one else tacky enough to send that  _ big  _ of an arrangement. He poked the middle of Ray’s chest, “This is not your stomping ground, boy scout. And if you're caught trespassing, she is  _ not  _ going to be happy—”

   “As much as I like that you’re worried about me, but it is unwarranted! I’m not trespassing. I was invited to be here, unlike  _ some  _ members of this conversation,”

   “What?” his mind raced, trying to tie a few threads into knots, “I’m sorry, are you _ working  _ with  _ Golden Glider _ ?”

   Ray blanched for a second at that, “Okay. Okay, let’s all take a step back here because I am… so confused. How did you know I’m working with them?”

   “She’s the one who owns this warehouse, dumb ass, and she doesn’t just give this address out like candy,” Leonard reviewed his question, “Wait, did you say  _ them _ ?”

   “Yeah, her and Heatwave,” Leonard must have look lost, because he went on, “Tall, thick guy, looks like a sailor and dresses like a firefighter?

_ Mick,  _ Leonard’s mind kicked back into gear. She got Mick in on this, and he’d put  _ money  _ on him having the heat gun Lisa stole from Cisco. Probably didn’t take all that much convincing, with his whole pyro fetish and  _ death wish.  _

   “They brought me in on a few heists they want to pull off— for tech support, mostly, trying to counteract Barry’s speed. How did you figure it out?”

   “.... I know them,”

   “How?”   
   Nothing made  _ sense.  _ Ray was impeccable with research— that was obvious— and figuring out he and Lisa were related was hardly difficult to find out. Hell, it was just deductive reasoning. Snart wasn’t exactly a common last name so unless Ray didn’t—

   Wait.

   “Raymond, I’m sorry— do you not know their names?”

   He looked a little thrown by the question,“I’m doing this fun new thing where I don’t research my allies until after they betray me. I know they like this whole secret identity thing,” he threw his arms up like  _ what you gonna do,  _ “Though, between you and me, they are  _ really  _ bad at it so I figured out their first names are Lisa and Mick,” 

_ Interesting.  _ That meant Ray was still in the dark about him and Lisa, but what was more interesting was Leonard felt himself  _ wanting  _ to tell Ray about it. Wanted to tell him about their father, and how he got his scholarship for school but she refused to go with him, about how Mick was like an older brother to them, about how… but he couldn’t. It wasn’t just his secret anymore. 

   “So you going to say how do you know them or...?”

   “Childhood friends.” he muttered distractedly, stuffing his hands in his pockets and purposefully ignored how obviously little Ray believed that, “What’s going on here, Raymond?”

   “What do you mean?”

   “I know them. Leaving without stealing a single thing is  _ not  _ their MO. I know they were setting a trap for the Flash, I just can’t figure out what for. So,” he squared himself up, meeting Ray right in the eye, “you gonna tell me what they’re playing at?”

   He sighed, rubbing his knuckles against his palm in a nervous tick, “It’s like I said I’m just a tech guy. They asked me to build some speed neutralizers for them, that’s it. As far as what they’re for, they didn’t tell me.  _ Honest _ .”

   “Is that all you know, or all they told you?”

   His face skewered, “I have no idea what you mean,”

   “You’re a genius, as you so often remind us. I know you know how to read into subtext,”

   Ray didn’t meet his eye, staring with Spock level intensity at the hanger wall. Leonard smacked his arm, which made him yelp but eyes only flickered him for a second before they found something very interesting next to his left shoe.

   Leonard sighed, giving in, “I’m just trying to keep them from going to prison, Ray. If they go too far, I won’t be able to protect them.”

   He looked distinctly uncomfortable, but Leonard turned on the look— for once making  _ him  _ deal with the puppy dog eyes. It was still for a second, before Raymond let out a low whine, resolve visibly breaking.

   “ _ Fine _ ,” he threw his arms up, voice still whining, “They’re trying to kill Barry! Are you happy now?”

   “Yes.” beat. “Wait,  _ what?” _

 

*** *** ***

 

   It was an undeniable fact that Leonard had the best social skills of any member of Team Flash. Which, overall, is a horrible news for the rest of them, that Leonard learned more trying to distract people as he pickpocketed them then they did  _ actively trying  _ to make friends, but the time to gloat was later. 

   Two bodies had shown up, both with blunt force trauma as if they were thrown around the room wildly, no fingerprints or DNA evidence from a suspect around the room. The only hint they had were scraps of metal left behind that Barry was able to identify as Mentamenium. The mention of the compound had Wells immediately suspect an old college, Tomek Morrow, as a suspect. Apparently they had worked together until Morrow was fired, trying to militarize artificial intelligence using an alloy he found to be near destructible.    

   After his firing, he had created Morrow Labs just outside Central City and found a lot of success in the private sector. Then, Joe connect that both the two victims as his clients, both of whom had tried to contact the police to file some sort of report against Morrow. 

   Barry had went to investigate their only lead on a next victim when three flying bright red vacuum cleaners tried to light him on fire, drown him, and pull a tornado on him. (Respectively.) He managed to strangle one of them down, bringing it back to the Lab for Cisco to take apart piece by piece, where he was able to determine that a) this was a part of a series of similar robots, and b) there were operated remotely, by one universal controller.

   Ultimately it was Joe who suggested going about the operation carefully, sending someone undercover to a fundraiser Morrow was attending, to try and get the control. He hadn’t really opened up the discussion for volunteers, turning automatically to Leonard. It wasn’t a stretch— besides his mastery of human interaction, Joe fully understood how  _ good _ Leonard was at being  _ sly _ . Barry looked a little put out about not being chosen, but Leonard would make it up to him later. Buy him an ice cream or something.

   So Wells filled him in on everything he knew about the sorry sucker, shoved a comm in his ear, and made Caitlin lock him in the bathroom until he shaved.

   Yet, even with all that, he wasn’t fully sure how he found himself, hanging in the corner of the nicest ballroom in town, surrounded by the best, brightest, and  _ richest  _ of Central City, but utterly cornered by Osgood Rathaway, who apparently thought he knew him from somewhere and had been spending the better part of twenty minutes trying to figure it out. All Leonard was sure of how he was seriously regretting not grabbing a drink one his way in.

   “Perhaps you attend the country club,” he spoke slowly, like he was dying between every word. If only, “Brightens and Hollows Club, on third? Oldest in the city,”

   “I’m afraid not,” Leonard responded, trying to keep his  _ schmultsing  _ voice intake, and not let out what he was  _ begging  _ to scream.

   (They did know each other. They’d met twice. Once, when Hartley gave his partners the most awkward tour ever recorded around the Lab, his father’s beady eyes evaluating every surface like every atom owed him money. Twice, when he and Hartley saw him out for lunch one day, Hartley was quick enough to keep Leonard from going up and clocking him in the face.)

  “Well, where do you work— Snow, was it?”

  “Yes, Leonard Snow,” he drew, hearing the repeated protest of Caitlin in his ear, over Cisco and Barry’s snickering “I’m a mechanical engineer at Mercury Labs.”

  “With Christina McGee, correct? Horrid women, absolutely affronting. She’ll hire any vagaband or half baked grad student with a sob story— absolutely obsessed with affirmative action,” Leonard couldn’t tell if he was supposed to be agreeing with this or not, “At least, she didn’t blow up the city half the city, huh?”

  “You’re referring to Harrison Wells?” he hoped his voice was hiding how genuinely confused he was with how they got there.

  “Absolute madman. Can’t imagine what crackpot team he had tied together. I mean, I know he was hiring some unsavory characters, I have experience with that… but as an engineer, I’m sure your horrified with the work they did there, especially whoever built that machine.” he sipped his drink, lips still dry, “Anyway, where you at the Centralists Banquet a few months ago, perhaps?”

   Before he had a chance to respond, he feels a hand snake down his side to hang comfortably on his hip. His fight or flight kicked in, feeling the tension flow up through his entire body, hand snapping immediately to his pocket, fingers grazing the mini pistol there before the man attached to the hand spoke.

   “They were out of red wine, sweetie, so I got you a whiskey sour instead,” the friendly, familiar voice said as a glass was pushed into Leonard’s palm, “Hope that’s alright?”

   He let his shoulders relax minutely as he accepted it, schooling his face into a neutral domesticity and purred, “That’s _ perfect _ , Raymond, thank you.” He turned back to Rathaway, hand slinking its way up Ray’s chest, “Mr. Rathaway, this is my  _ fiancé _ ,”

   He saw Rathaway’s beady, disgusted eyes flicker to his finger to prove this— of course, he’s slid his mother band from his pinky to his ring finger when accepting the drink from Ray, so appearances were all in order.

   Ray either didn’t see the catch the glance or pointedly ignored it, because he leaned forward to offer a handshake with a blinding smile, “Raymond Stein, growth manager for Queen Consolidated. It is a  _ pleasure _ .”

  Rathaway took the hand, shaking it assuredly, but eyes distinctly uncomfortable at the two of them together, “Yes, yes. Well, I must make the rounds, it was… lovely to meet you both,” 

_ Ah Osgood. You old so and so _ .

  Both he and his new  _ fiancé  _ hid a laugh at his hurried, uncomfortable shuffling away, the two now standing alone in the dorner. Ray took his hand off his waist, letting it hang awkwardly next to him and Leonard took a moment to access the new scenery.

   Raymond filled out his suit out rather handsomely, wonderfully broad shoulders emphasised with lean cut of his lapel and dwindled itself into touch-too-tight pants. It was like his body was  _ made  _ for this kind of attire, Leonard thought bitterly as he took a sip of his drink to have something to blame the burn in his throat on, made it an easy lie to sell that he belonged amongst these stiffs.

   “Thanks for the hand back there,  _ darling _ ,” he chewed, “I don’t think that fellow was too charmed by me,”

   “Must be something wrong with him,” Ray muttered, almost smirking,

  “There is. Also, I think he was getting closer to remembering the time I punched him in the face,”

  That shocked a nervous laugh out of him, “What did he do?”

  “Told his twenty-three year old son he was dead to them when he came out as gay.” 

  “Oh,” Ray said, blankly, “Yeah. He deserved it. Glad I was here to make him look at us dirty, dirty queers for a little bit,”

  Leonard snorted into his glass at that, but couldn’t deny that.

  “Besides, it  _ does _ help to have a partner at these sort of things. I don’t know what is about rich people, but they seem to get  _ personally  _ offended when you're single.”

   “That’s because rich people are dicks,”

   Ray threw his head back as he laughed, neck long and strong and fully on display. Leonard took another long sip, “Well, we agree on that,” 

   After that, they fell into a short silence as Leonard swept the room on surveillance. The majority of these donors looked the same, a fact Morrow was certainly using to his advantage. It was still early in the night— Wells had mentioned his habit of arriving late, so Leonard resigned himself to a long night. When his eyes fell back to Ray, the brown eyes were already looking at him, caressing over his body slowly. Leonard cleared his throat, a little amused as a bright blush warmed his cheeks.

   “See something you like, Raymond?”

   “You are  _ unreal _ ,” 

   Leonard raised an eyebrow, amused, “Ex _ cuse _ me?”

   “In a good way! I mean, you are— I mean—” he blew air out of him lips, hands gesturing vaguely up and down Leonard’s body before his mind apparently caught up to him and he dropped his hands instantly, “You look incredible,”

   The compliment was simple, but his genuinity brought a little heat to the back of Leonard’s neck which he pointedly ignored, “Compliment me all you want, Raymond, but I don’t go put out on the first date,”

   “One could argue this is our third, really. If you count the warehouse and the flowers— four if you have Stockholm,”

   “Oh, then in that case,” Leonard leaned into Raymond space, “Meet me in the bathroom in fifteen,”

   There was just a second of silence between, almost imperceivable before it broke by Ray’s slightly breathless laugh. Ray’s face came alive when he smiled. His smile stretched from ear to ear, dimples carving canyons in his cheeks, and eyes bright, beautiful— he looked free and open, and  _ stunning.  _ It pulled you in like a moth to light; made you forget he was a criminal, made you forget he what he was capable of, made you lose your breath.

   Disgusting.

   As Ray’s giggle died down, he leaned closer, if at all possible, head tilted down.

   “Dance with me?”

   “Why.” he deadpanned.

   “Look around— every couple here is white person slow dancing.” his hand snaked around to the small of Leonard’s back, “Easier to blend in. Plus, get us closer to the entrance,”

  His sighing was becoming a danger to his lung health, but he took a hold of Ray’s hand just the same and pulled him more center stage. Ray’s hands slipped into position on his waist and in his own palm naturally, pulling Leonard in close. What they were doing couldn’t technically be defined as dancing, more as swaying around in the same circle.

   “So—”

   “Okay, okay, I know what you’re about to ask—”

   “Where’d you get the suit,” Leonard drawled, dryly. 

   That apparently took him a little off guard and Leonard felt the rumble of Ray’s laugh against his chest, “Okay. So I  _ don’t  _ know what you’re gonna ask,”

   “You’re a  _ thief _ , Raymond. It isn’t exactly rocket science to figure out what you’re doing at a function for the one percent,”

   “Thief is so  _ reductive _ . I have other skills, you know.”

   “Like what? Lying?”

   “Sure! Also, corporate espionage.  _ And  _ I bake.”

   “A renaissance man,”

   That horrid smile returned as he looked down bashfully, “I’m looking for tech. A system that’s able to support a network of nanotech,”

   “Tomek Morrow,” Leonard filled in.

   “Yeah, actually,”

   “Looks like we’re here for the same guy,  _ darling _ . Our friend here’s been building troublesome little robot groupies. Killing old people, the works,”

   “You here for intel?”

   “Remote control. Apparently keeps it on him at all times, in his pocket. Almost as dumb as you,”

   “No offense, but how are you planning on getting that?” 

   He smirked, bringing his hand between them, Ray’s wallet along with it, “You’re not the only one with  _ skills _ ,”

   The surprised  _ o  _ Raymond’s mouth made was rather adorable, “How did you—?”

   “I have light fingers,” he slipped it into Raymond’s back pocket, hand lingering just slightly too long. Ray didn’t seem to mind, as his own hand on Leonards pulled him closer in. He was close enough to feel the rise and fall of Raymond’s breathing and let his cologne make Leonard’s sense drowsy.

   “Well, Mr. Snart, you are just full of surprises,”

   Something changed in the air between them, like every inch separating their bodies was charged. Ray’s eyes traced the curve of Leonard’s smirk, teeth teasing his bottom lip deliciously. The unspoken  _ something  _ between them was breeching closer and closer to being  _ spoken— _

   “ _ If you’re done flirting, Snart,”  _ Wells’ voice crackled in his ear, “ _ Surveillance has eyes on Morrow in the west entrance,” _

   “Noted, Wells.” he drawled, the change in his voice noticeable to even him.

   “What’s up?” Ray asked, the low lilt replaced with his usual puppy dog enthusiasm.

   “Morrow just arrived. What do you say, boy scout? Wanna help me stop a bad guy?”

  The slow, crooked smile that spread across his face was answer enough.

 

***

   Maybe, looking back, it was that moment that gave Ray the idea.

 

*** *** ***

 

   A lot happened very quickly.

   Hartley. Bigalow. Ronnie. Stein. Firestorm. Hartley again, but he’s good now. Barry from the future. Joe suspects Wells. Leonard suspects Wells. Barry suspects Wells. The government  _ has been suspecting  _ Wells. Ronnie left. Mardon. Mick tried to light Cisco’s brother on fire. Lisa knows who the Flash is. Ray got a haircut.

   A lot of tragedies. Very short amount of time. 

  Thing were slogging along slower now. Or maybe things were going at the same peace, but now that he was cataloging every moment of Wells’ day, every second seemed longer. He was used to this— it was surveillance, he used to do it alot with his dad. He knew how to keep it subtle.

  Barry? Not so much.

  He kid was jumpy, hostile. Every time he caught Wells’ eyes, he was snapped; he was distracted at work, equally distracted in the Lab. Hell, he’d never say it but it was clear to Leonard that he was suspicious of  _ Caitlin and Cisco,  _ the two most harmless people on the planet— the kid was  _ spiraling _ . 

  It made sense since lying was  _ not  _ in Barry’s DNA like it was Leonard’s. Like he told Ray, he was  _ good _ .

  Leonard couldn’t get into how he was feeling really; he hadn’t felt that grip on morals since before his bar mitzvah, so trying to understand the spiral Barry was spinning through was… a big ask. Very hypothetical. 

  So simple to say he was very pleased when Felicity Smoak turned up at the same time as the bee stung corpse of Lindsay Kang, needing a favor from Caitlin and being a wonderfully well times shoulder for Barry to cry on. And it seemed to have worked for like half a second.

  Before Cisco pulled up old schematics, and Barry  _ technically  _ died— that  _ apparently  _ stirred up some  _ negative  _ attitudes that even Felicity couldn’t completely talk down. 

  Leonard had been the one who suggested she should try to take him out, get his mind off the Reverse Flash issue, which she stupidly suggested to tote along Thawne and Iris. Which he thought was dumb, but he wasn’t going to try to understand straight people—

  But he was going to have to be the one to call, intruputting said dinner while Cisco and Caitlin tried to kill a bee. Which ended up being a robot. Because god was a vicious prick with a vendetta against Leonard.

 

***

 

  “Unbelievable,” Cisco sounded a little too psyched to be describing a bee that had just tried to kill his boss, “This bot's got a 360-degree vision system. I mean, we're talking multiple micro-cameras all coming from various angles at the same time. Which means…”

  “It can see all around the room at once,” Leonard drawled, but found his voice wasn’t alone— a friendly draw harmonizing. 

  There was a pause in the air, as everyone checked the mouths of the men around them, but Leonard’s ears perked instantly because he  _ knew that voice  _ and the timing was impeccable terrible.

  They turned around as if  _ choreographed _ , to find Raymond Carson Palmer standing, dressed head to toe civilian, in the doorway, as if it made sense for him to be there.

  It was quiet for another moment, before Wells finally broke, voice just utterly defeated, “How do you keep getting in here?”

  “You don’t lock your doors,” Ray managed to get out before Barry had him pressed up against the wall, “Oh, wow, hello to you too!”

  “What the hell are you doing here?” he sighed more disappointed than anything, as Leonard sighed at the dramatics and Felicity just looked confused.

  “You can just slow your roll, Barry— I’m here to help!”

  “With what?” Cisco asked, as Felicity spoke up, “Also, who are you?”

  “I heard about your bee problem, and I got some good info for you,” he leaned around Barry, waving at Felicity, “Hi! I’m Ray— I’m the Atom,”

  Her brow furrowed, “Aren’t you a criminal?”

  “That’s sorta a loaded question, isn’t it?” he leveled and she seemed to be satisfied with that. He turned to Barry now, patting his arm sweetly, “Would you mind letting me down, bud? I here as a friend, promise.”

  The back of Barry’s head tilted, like he wasn’t sure if that was  _ okay _ , so Leonard sighed again, and spoke up, “Give him some space, Barry. He’s sorely outnumbered if he’s lying,”

  That seemed to be enough, and Barry released his gripped. Ray sent a dopey grin his way, “Thanks, Len,” Felicity mouthed  _ Len  _ confused, but he pointedly ignored her.

  “Mr. Palmer, as much as I appreciate a last rites,” Wells drawled, rolling towards him lazily, “forgive my confusion at your sudden,  _ total  _ revolution of faith,”

  Ray frowned, “Okay, all you can prove is that I robbed a few one percenters. You make me sound like a serial killer. Also what are last rites?”

  “Did you not help Golden Glider and Heatwave in trying to kill Barry?”

  “He told us about that.” Leonard snapped, eyes drawing to him.

  “After you interrogated him,” Wells dryly replied.

  Cisco coughed, uncomfortably, “I mean… he did also tell us how to disengage the hardware. He didn’t really have to do that,”

  Ray gestured concurrently at Cisco in support, “Thank  _ you _ , Cisco! I felt bad about that whole thing, and figured you could use some help!”

  “Do you really expect me to believe that, Mr. Palmer?”

  Everything was quiet for a moment— like everyone was holding their breath in anticipation. Leonard felt a strange anger creep up his spine, glare getting harder and harder at the back of Wells’ head.

  “No.” he sighed, “No, I guess not… I.”

  Ray’s eyes shifting past Wells, landing on Leonard and things got quiet again for a different reason, “I guess I’m just looking into this whole idealism thing” 

  His spine felt better, but his lungs suddenly were suffocating. 

  “I know I’m sort of the new kid on the block here,” Felicity tried, voice a little unsure, but breaking the silence all the same. Leonard broke their gaze, eyes shifting to Cisco and then immediately away when he saw his shit eating grin,

  “But what’s the harm? I mean, I know he did some bad crimes and that is  _ so not cool  _ but… well… you trusted the Arrow? And he’s not nearly so… nice!”

   The silence came back, but this time was buzzing with horrible intensity as everyone looked to everyone else to decide what was going to happen. Barry looked horribly dazed, Cisco annoyingly enthused, Caitlin exhausted… Leonard locked eyes with Barry when he could pin him down, not letting go.

  Barry spoke first, “What the hell. We let Snart stay?”

  Oh so it’s law when  _ Barry  _ said it.

  Wells was doing that pinching the middle eyebrow thing again, “What pertinent information do you have, Mr. Palmer?”

  “Oh! Well, I was on some nanotech forums— yes we have forums, Leonard, don’t laugh—  when I ran across someone talking about optimizing Morrow’s possibilities on a much larger scale. We’re talking thousands here. Sorta flagged something for me and when I heard about these bee deaths—”

  “How?”

  “Don’t worry about it, Caitlin— I made the connection. I’m sure you’ve figured that this hardware?” he moved into the cortex at a steady pace, leaning behind Cisco to gesture at the screen, “It’s the same I use, which means its next gen level— not exactly on the market,”

  “So we’re looking someone with access to this equipment,” Wells dawned. 

  “Exactly what I was thinking,”

  Wells turned to Cisco, “You said the last victim was a robotics engineer, right Cisco? Let’s cross reference his previous employers with that of Ms. Kang,”  

  “Oh! Let me!” Felicity cried, already scurrying into the open chair, “Mama’s been away from a keyboard for way too long,” she clacked at a supernatural peace, a thousand windows flying across the monitor at once before the steadied into two employee files, “Got it.”

  “They both worked at Mercury Labs.”

 

***

 

  He stayed with them. 

  He stopped a swarm of robot bees.

  He fell from the sky.

  He took a bee for Cisco and died.

  He came back to life. 

 

***

  “I’ve never taken a bee for anyone before,” he smiled, as Caitlin checked his blood pressure for the hundredth time, “Cisco, we may be on a whole new level of friendship.”

  Cisco laughed at that, punching his arm, “Dude, after this, we’re like  _ blood brothers, _ ”

  “It was pretty amazing,” Barry laughed, “Thank god you didn’t die, I have no idea how’d we explain that on your tombstone,”

  “ _ Ray Palmer; He Beez In The Trap _ ,” 

  “ _ Ray Palmer; Rest In Bees _ .”

  “You two are seriously disturbed,” Caitlin deadpanned, Felicity snorting into her hand.

  Leonard stood off to the side, arms as tightly crossed as they’d been since Cisco and Barry carried at stumbling Ray into the medbay half an hour ago. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t spoken, hadn’t removed his eyes from Ray since he slumped in the bed, insisting everyone was making too big of a deal of this. 

  It was too much, seeing him laugh and exchange easy, friendly smiles with the some of the few people Leonard cared about.

  “Does this make me part of the team now? Do I get a jacket?”

  “We don’t have that kind of budget,” 

  Ray opened his mouth, grinning wildly but Leonard cut him off.

  “Can you give us the room?” the words were soft, but it seems everyone was waiting for him to speak since they all jumped into action at Leonards words. 

  “We’ll go get some food,” Cisco said. Barry seemed reluctant, mouth slightly agape but Felicity and Caitlin both graped an arm and pulled him out. 

  It was silent. He heard Raymond gulp.

  “So. How was heaven?”

  “Len—”

  “You died, Raymond. Like fully died. Barry had to restart your heart, like he was fucking John Travolta. Have you ever seen  _ Pulp Fiction?  _ Who am I kidding, you’re a white guy, of course you have.”

  “Len, babe look—”

  “No. No. Raymond, you start talking  _ now.  _ Why were you here in the first place?”

  He sighed, getting up off the bed slowly, “I was being honest. Really, I want to help.”

  “To take down a tech nerd with a revenge wish?”

  “No! Well, yes. But mostly because I need them to trust me to help with Reverse Flash.”

  “Are you  _ high?”  _

  “No, Caitlin wouldn’t give me anything. Len, look, I know I’m not exactly Mr. Straight and Narrow, but even I can see that guy is the real deal. He is… horrifying and a psychopath who is probably trying to destroy the world or kill the Pope or something!”

  “Yeah, I’m aware, which is why you should—”

  “Give you all the help you can get. Look, I get that me turning over this leave, even just for a little bit is hard to believe, but Len,” he moved closer, so they were toe to toe, his neck bent to make perfect eye contact, “I want to help.  _ Let  _ me help.”

   Ah. Fuck it.

   Leonard grabbed the back his head, hands clawing through dark hair to slip on his jaw and pull Raymond’s face in, lips meeting in a cacophonous rush of  _ feeling _ . Ray had caught up about half way through the motion, mouth open and plush and  _ hot  _ against Leonard’s. The tension between them for the past  _ year  _ broke like a guitar string, a thousand unplayed notes pouring out in the dance of their tongues and clank of their teeth.

   Needless to say, Raymond was  _ very  _ good at this.

   His whole body felt  _ alive _ , nerve endings blasting off with a million feelings a second, the want to do so many things pulling him in a hundred different directions. His body moved on its own almost, legs folding to kneeling on either side of Ray’s thighs before he lowered himself into his lap fully. Ray responded immediately, hot hands running up and down Leonard’s thighs, ass, and back, before he took a hold of Leonard’s ass and  _ pulled  _ him forward till there was barely an inch to breathe between them. 

   They broke off, gasping breaths into the shared space, lips finding each other in short kisses. Raymond’s breath hitched after everyone, an exciting discovery and since Leonard was a scientist after all, he had to test the limits of that. He scraped his teeth along that wonderful neck of his, following it with soft, languid kisses— teeth catching on the skin around Ray’s pulse every few or so.

   Ray’s breathing felt like a earthquake next to him.

   He worked his way up, passing the curve of his jaw to gnaw at the soft earlobe that hung in shockingly pale against his dark hair. 

   The first tease of teeth rewarded him with an utterly broken “ _ Leonard,” _

   He pulled the skin between his teeth and pulled. Because he was an asshole.

   Before he knew what was happening, big hands gripped his hips and spun them over— Ray’s body pressing Leonard’s into the medbed, his legs on either side of that giant torso. He felt every inch of hard muscle against his soft form, writing up to get more friction because  _ fuck _ —

   Ray’s hands found their way under his sweater and whipped it off without hesitation, leaving Leonard in just his under tee shirt before fingers pulled at the collar of that, exposing his upper chest before Ryan’s smart mouth took their place, sucking like his life depended on it.

   “Oh fuck,  _ Raymond—” _

   Something clicked, he could almost hear the shift in Ray’s head as all action stopped dead. It was like someone hit the pause button, them standing in suspended animation for a fraction of a second before Ray pushed himself completely off Leonard, off the bed, across the room—

   He basically shot back like a bullet, hands scuttering out to force a supply table between them, gauze bouncing wildly as it was whipped to the end of the bed. Leonard forced his eyes off the movement, back to Ray, who was crowded, chest heaving, against the supply cabinets ten feet away, on the other side of the med bay.

   “Is everything okay—?” Leonard went to ask, breathless, but he was shushed.

   “We need to talk!” he blurted, frantically.

   “Okay? Ray, I—”

   “You need to—” his hands gesturing frantically, “ _ stay  _ over there until we talk about this more!!”

   “Okay, yes I hear you— but was the table really necess—?”

   “Leonard, I’m going to give you a pass because you don’t know what you  _ look  _ like right now,” Ray took a deep, gulping breath eyes dragging up Leonard’s body greedily, “but trust me. I need a  _ physical barrier _ between us,”

   He could only imagine: if was anything like Ray with his hair pushed at thousand angles, cheeks flushed, mouth red and shiny, eyes dark; well, then he looked  _ wrecked.  _ His arms were cold free of his sweater and he felt the stale lab air on the side of his neck where Ray had pulled to  _ devour  _ his collarbones—

   Yeah, okay. Physical barrier was a solid idea.

   “So what you want to talk about?” he leaned against the bed, trying to control his breathing, “The weather?”

   “I have feelings for you,” he said instead. 

   Fuck. Why couldn’t he just play along.

   “Okay,” Leonard said carefully.

   “Okay?” his voice was panicked.

   “I don’t know what to say to that.”

   Ray blew air out of his lips, manically, “You could say what you  _ feel _ —”

   Leonard didn’t do that.

   “If we do this, are  _ you  _ going to stop stealing shit?”

   “If we do this, are you going to tell me what your thinking?”

   “Raymond,” he sighed deeply.

   Ray seemingly melted, eyes darkening, “I love how you say my name,”

   He glared, finding it hard to scrounge up any heat to put behind it, “ _ Boy scout, _ ”

   “Right! Sorry, that one was on me!! We are not— you stay there!”

   He flashed back to adorably flustered and Leonard had to stare at the floor to get through this,“We need to be realistic about this. Raymond, you commit crimes. I  _ stop  _ criminals.”

   “I noticed.” 

   “You helping with Larson? With the Reverse Flash? That’s not going to eradicate your whole record, not even for me,”

   “I didn’t expect it to,”

   Leonard scoffed at that and Ray looked affronted, “What? I don’t think this is a get out of jail free card, I told you that!”

   “Then how do you expect we do this? What, I come visit you? Iron Heights doesn’t do conjugal visits, Raymond!”   

   “I don’t claim to know how we’re gonna do this,”

   “ _ You’re the one who wanted to talk about it!” _

   “Len, I don’t know what’s gonna happen in the future, or how we’ll make this work if there’s even a way. All I know is that I  _ care  _ about you so  _ much. _ ” his voice caught just a little, “But I need to know where you stand.”

   “Come on, you have to know—”

   “I don’t! You’re not exactly an open book,” he cried, gesturing wildly, “You never  _ tell  _ me anything, Leonard!”

   And he didn’t know what to say.

   It hit him all of a sudden that they don’t know the fundamentals about each other. They skipped that part— right into the hard part (not that there were any easy parts with Leonard,)  talking about their morals, their beliefs, all that bullshit. They never touched on  _ why.  _ Ray doesn’t know about Lisa, or their father, or about his criminal record. He doesn’t know about Leonard turning his dad in, doesn’t know about keeping in contact with Lisa while working for the Flash, doesn’t know about who he’s loved or lost. And the same with Ray— the man was in his late thirties, he’d lived a whole  _ life  _ that Ray didn’t know about, didn’t fully know what he’s done, if he’s  _ killed— _

   But the yearning, the aching need to share… hit him like a tidal wave so he just spoke, stuttering like an idiot.    

   “I… Ray, I want to tell you about... everything,”

   That was  _ apparently  _ the right thing to say. The staleness between them broke, Ray’s face flashed through a thousand emotions in a second—  _ relief, joy, hunger—  _ as he took careful, steady steps towards Leonard. He hit the table and took a pause— their eyes met. Leonard lifted his brows and challenged.

   The metal clattered as Ray pushed it aside, hands pulling Leonard’s legs around his torso, and pressed him against the wall. It was apparently the  _ very  _ right thing to say. Ray pressed down, lips meeting in a sweet smash. The heat from before was there, boiling under the surface, but that wasn’t the point of this kiss. Ray wasn’t trying to fuck him with this kiss, he was saying a hundred things that Leonard couldn’t find words for. Soft, slowly, over and over like a chant; the meaning clear through the veil of utter simplicity

_ My name is Raymond Palmer. Nice to meet you. _

   Leonard was excited to get to know him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YEAH THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE UNDER 9,000 WORDS LOL anyway, I'm slowly editing this and will probably rewrite some stuff but I wanted to post it because I dunno. I need instant gratification. I hope you liked it! my friend got me really into legends so I've been hyperfocused on that crew recently!


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